SOPHIE’S CHOICE had been mentioned in overheard conversations at the 2nd Annual TCM Classic Film Festival more than any other film. It didn’t screen, but rather was used to convey a sense of the impossible choices attendees were asked to make as the packed schedule consistently clashed at least four “must-see” classics in similar time slots. Where else could you hear people contemplating between seeing Angela Lansbury introducing GASLIGHT or Richard Roundtree introducing SHAFT? Do you choose Kirk Douglas over Roger Corman? Is that even fair to ask? These four pack-full days of screenings provided enough cinephilic dilemmas to last at least until next year.

Day one (Thursday) of the festival kicked off with a gala screening of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS at Grauman’s Chinese, quite possibly the most iconic film theater in the U.S. And how nice it was to see figures such as Leslie Caron, Peter O’Toole, Eva Marie Saint, Mickey Rooney, Jane Powell, and so many others walk the same red carpet they must once have been so familiar with.

My own journey didn’t start in PARIS but in a small seaside village. Somehow, despite my adoration of Gene Tierney, I managed to never before see THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, which screened as part of the festival’s tribute to composer Bernard Herrmann (and introduced by his daughter). FIR’s Editor, Roy Frumkes, warned me about the emotional charge of this unlikely story about a young widow who falls in love with the ghost of a sea captain (Rex Harrison). Sure enough, it could squeeze tears out of a rock. Tierney’s features, without a doubt, were carved by the gods to flicker at 24-frames per second.

Joseph von Sternberg’s THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN screened next, starring Marlene Dietrich as a seemingly unredeemable woman who causes a rift between two friends, a Spanish officer (Lionel Atwill) and an outlaw rebel (Cesar Romero). A story reminiscent of Clarence Brown’s 1925 Garbo-starrer, FLESH AND THE DEVIL, and of one of its most memorable lines: “When the Devil can’t reach us through the spirit, he creates a woman beautiful enough to reach us through the flesh.”

The Spanish government found THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN highly offensive and demanded Paramount take it out of circulation. The studio, in return, destroyed the original negative. Luckily for film viewers, it was Dietrich’s favorite film of herself and she kept a print in her safe, which is the source of the copies available today. The jaw-dropping new restoration by the MOMA accentuated the richness and unrestrained sensuality of this masterpiece.

Friday (Day two) started with THE CONSTANT NYMPH, a 1943 Edmund Goulding film starring Joan Fontaine and Charles Boyer. TCM’s host, Robert Osborne, introduced the special screening, noting that due to copyright issues it hasn’t been properly seen since its original release. Osborne was particularly excited about THE CONSTANT NYMPH since TCM has been trying to clear the rights to show it for the past 18 years. It was worth the wait. Fontaine received an Oscar nomination for her role as Tessa, an unhealthy fourteen year-old country girl, hopelessly in love with the much older composer, Lewis Dodd (Boyer). Goulding perfectly balances the melodrama with light-hearted touches. Fontaine’s performance may be one of her best. TCM has yet to announce their premiere date for THE CONSTANT NYMPH, but when they do, set your DVR’s.

Barbara Rush was in attendance to introduce Nick Ray’s 1956 Technicolor melodrama, BIGGER THAN LIFE, the REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE of prescription drug abuse films. James Mason stars as a man diagnosed with a rare condition that leaves him with months to live. His only hope is an experimental cortisone treatment that saves his life but also makes him psychotic. Rush co-stars as his wife. BIGGER THAN LIFE is out on Blu-Ray by Criterion, and while their transfer is supreme (and highly recommended), nothing compares to the real thing. Few directors besides Ray and Douglas Sirk were able to extract such darkness out of the saturation and brightness of the Technicolor process, although Ray’s composition and use of color seems less sentimental and more sinister. Mason, who also produced the film, storms through it with terrifying conviction. Not surprisingly, this intense drama did not find much success upon its initial release, but nevertheless, it is a well-deserved rediscovered classic.

I had to cut Friday short due to a personal engagement. That meant coming to terms with missing, among others, Roger Corman in attendance for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, Kirk Douglas at SPARTACUS, Mickey Rooney at GIRL CRAZY, a restoration of William Wyler’s great film (and one of Walter Huston’s best performances), DODSWORTH, and one of my most anticipated events, Kevin Brownlow (possibly the greatest living film historian) introducing Erich von Stroheim’s THE MERRY WIDOW.

Saturday (Day 3) found me standing in a line stretching around the block for a 9am screening of Carol Reed’s THE THIRD MAN at The Egyptian, Sid Grauman’s first Hollywood theater (1922). Angela Allen, the script supervisor who worked on the film, stayed for a post-screening discussion. And while the sun never rises too early for a touch of Orson Welles, my heart wasn’t with one of the greatest Noirs ever made. I anxiously awaited the following event, a 50th anniversary screening of THE PARENT TRAP, with Hayley Mills in attendance.

If one film bears responsibility for my falling in love with cinema, it is THE PARENT TRAP. Despite watching it countless times since it originally captured me on VHS as a kid, every repeat viewing carries the emotional impact of the first time. TCM programmed it as the centerpiece of a tribute to Hayley Mills that also included SUMMER MAGIC and WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND. In 1960, Mills received the final (out of 11) Juvenile Awards ever given by the Academy, for POLLYANNA, her first American role. How fitting that her win book-ended an award that originated for Shirley Temple in 1934.

A video tribute to Mills played before the screening, followed by a conversation moderated by Leonard Maltin. She still possesses the same charismatic youthful charm that made her a star to begin with. Mills entranced the audience in person as much as immediately after when the beautifully saturated print projected on the screen. THE PARENT TRAP holds up as the quintessential Disney film. On a personal level, it may have been the most meaningful experience I had in a cinema.

From The Egyptian I headed to The Chinese to see the new digital restoration of CITIZEN KANE. A second dose of Welles. The screening followed a lively conversation between TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz (grandson of KANE’s screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz) and Norman Lloyd, a member of Welles’s original Mercury Players. The digital print, which some may find satisfying, seemed offensively sharp to me. In fact, the fake opening documentary sequence almost looked like HD footage masked by digital effects, to make it “look like film”. These films were never meant to look so sharp, and having the power to tweak them doesn’t mean we should abuse it. But, that said, CITIZEN KANE sucks you in. Sharp or soft, it would be a cinematic tour de force even as a slideshow.

Bruce Goldstein of the Film Forum in New York produced several special events for the festival. The first, a day earlier, a screening of William Castle’s THE TINGLER, theatrics included, that ran at the Forum a few months back. On Saturday he organized a screening of Buster Keaton’s THE CAMERAMAN at The Egyptian, with live musical accompaniment by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. Giordano’s orchestra channeled the period’s musical style in an educated, authentic, and enticing fashion. In that old-Hollywood theater, the year was 1928 again. And like wine from a particularly good year, when it comes to film, it rarely gets better than ’28.

In need of more light-hearted fare after almost 12-hours in film theaters, I opted for SHAFT over GASLIGHT. A screening that punctuates the incredible diversity of films TCM chose to feature. Film historian Donald Bogle, and Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree, introduced the action classic.

The 10am screening of NIGHT FLIGHT (1933) on Day 4 (Sunday) had been completely packed by 9:20, with only a few lone seats to be snagged by scavengers. Introducing the film, Robert Osborne mentioned it to be the screening he was most excited about alongside THE CONSTANT NYMPH. Another rarely seen picture, it has been out of circulation since 1942. Produced by Darryl Zanuck and directed by Clarence Brown, it featured an all-star cast including John and Lionel Barrymore, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery. According to Osborne NIGHT FLIGHT had been planned to be an ensemble film in the vein of GRAND HOTEL, following the story of airmail pilots on a dangerous night flight mission. Seems odd that with so many power players NIGHT FLIGHT remains obscure, but beyond its historical significance and competent cinematography it remains a lackluster affair. A paper-thin storyline and uninspired performances prevent it from truly engaging the viewer. A post-screening conversation took place between Osborne and Drew Barrymore, in which she enthusiastically spoke about her legendary family tree and their works.

Next up, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND. More Hayley Mills. A 1961 British production directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Richard Attenborough. Based on a novel by Mills’s mother, Mary Hayley Bell, the story revolves around three children who discover an escaped murderer (Alan Bates) in their family barn and mistake him for Jesus Christ. Mills’s maturity as an actress, even at a young age, could be seen by her unconventional choice of roles. Making a film like WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, a wonderfully contemplative, melancholic coming-of-age tale, in the same year as THE PARENT TRAP. Or in 1966, starring in both THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS as somewhat of a continuation of her Disney characters, and THE FAMILY WAY in England, which explored womanhood and sex. Mills stayed for a lengthy Q&A post-screening. She mentioned that her father, John Mills, originally wanted to direct WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, but dropped out. Interesting, considering he directed the very similar SKY WEST AND CROOKED in 1966, also starring Mills and written by her mother.

Given that the festival paid tribute to both Mills and Bernard Herrmann, I wished for a screening of TWISTED NERVE, a terrific horror film with her in the lead and the Hermann score made famous by Tarantino’s KILL BILL.

Later on Sunday, Bruce Goldstein hosted a tribute to the Nicholas Brothers, an African-American dance duo who were greatly admired by the likes of Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Michael Jackson, and countless others. Goldstein narrated a selection of clips from films that featured Harold and Fayard Nicholas, such as DOWN ARGENTINE WAY and THE PIRATE, alongside TV appearances, rare film footage shot by the brothers, and interview clips from a 1992 documentary he made about them. Their dance routines were so exhilarating that the audience burst into applause after every single clip, as if we were privy to a live performance. Robert Townsend, director of HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE, was in attendance, as well as the brothers’ families, which made the presentation all the more touching. Goldstein finished by playing an encore of the “staircase” routine from STORMY WEATHER, a piece Astaire called the greatest musical sequence ever.

The Nicholas Brothers in Action

Sunday ended with a newly restored print of Mike Nichols’ WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, with cinematographer Haskell Wexler in attendance. Wexler confided prior to the screening that he originally refused to shoot VIRGINIA WOOLF due to a previous commitment. Jack Warner finally convinced him, assuring him that if he didn’t shoot the film he would never work in Hollywood again. A good choice considering it won him his first Academy Award. VIRGINIA WOOLF, for all its great performances, is elevated from a theater play to cinematic beauty thanks primarily to Wexler’s cinematography. He consistently finds movement in static situations, extracting it directly from the emotional state of the characters. The print restoration, which he supervised, looked magnificent.

When the Academy quietly pulled the lifetime achievement awards from its televised award ceremony, it seemed like the American film industry had finally rid its conscience of its history. Even film festivals in the U.S. rarely juxtapose the current state of cinema with its heritage. A successful future cannot exist without a consideration of the past. The unique way in which the TCM Classic Film Festival celebrates these classics as if they were the hottest films of the moment balances this “out with the old” approach, making it, at least spiritually, the most important film festival in the United States.

A dashing swashbuckler; a New Guinea plantation master; a drunk and opium fiend; a hero of the land and man of the sea; a published author; a man of action; a gentlemen and a Don Juan; a cowboy and a Castro sympathizer. From Australia through Hollywood and to Jamaica, Errol Flynn remains one of Hollywood’s greatest stars, and possibly, its greatest enigma.

Flynn was never bestowed any of Hollywood’s honors or awards, although his persona was an embodiment of the greatest asset a film star requires – charisma – of which he had an abundance. Flynn’s qualities as a film star were undeniable from his first starring role in CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935). His charisma often helped camouflage his limitations as an actor, and although his skills constantly improved, leading to a tour-de-force performance as John Barrymore in TOO MUCH, TOO SOON (1958), Flynn rarely embodied a character – the character embodied Flynn. Ironically, as his career deteriorated and his star faded, his performances became better and better.

Flynn’s virtues were many, but so were his vices. After a notorious statutory rape trial in 1943, in which he was acquitted, Flynn was stigmatized as an incorrigible ladies’ man, diverting any discussion of his film work to his sexual conquests, eventually consuming his life and career. Flynn may be the only actor with a phrase coined after him to describe a man’s sexual success – “In like Flynn.” This, unfortunately, still overshadows his achievements, leaving him a vastly underappreciated actor to this day.

The rape trial was a turning point in Flynn’s life and career, but problems with maintaining his public image began when he failed to join the war effort in WWII. He desperately wanted to enlist, and was rejected from every branch of the army he applied to. Flynn’s long health record, including tuberculosis and malaria, kept him from joining. He even wrote to the Office of Strategic Services, offering himself as a foreign diplomat. Regardless of his struggles to join, the public noticed the irony of Flynn, the great athlete and hero, staying at home while fellow actors like Clark Gable, James Stewart, and David Niven were fighting for their country.

Previously, Flynn had traveled to Spain as a Franco supporter during their civil war; later on he traveled to Cuba in support of Castro’s revolution; but his only way to participate in WWII was by raising the nations’ morale through cinema. The new TCM box-set, Errol Flynn Adventures, celebrates 5 of Flynn’s WWII films, allowing him to do something he so badly wanted to be doing in real life – killing Nazis.

Four of the five films in the TCM collection were directed by Raoul Walsh, who became Flynn’s signature director after the star parted ways with Michael Curtiz, who directed him in twelve films. Curtiz knew how to bring the dashing hero out of Flynn, whereas Walsh recognized the dualities inherent in Flynn’s persona. His dark sense of humor and melodramatic tendencies worked to incorporate melancholy even when Flynn was at his most charismatic.

In DESPERATE JOURNEY (1942) he certainly is at his most charismatic. When his plane is shot down over Germany, Flight Lt. Terry Forbes (Flynn) must lead his crew through enemy territory back to England. A fantastic story befitting an old Men’s Adventure Magazine, DESPERATE JOURNEY embraces and delights in its far-fetched plot. Walsh called it “a war comedy spiced with enough tragedy to give it reality.” The ensemble cast includes Ronald Reagan, Arthur Kennedy, and Alan Hale. They appear to have a genuine good time, roaming through Germany, beating the odds. The comedic tone doesn’t hurt the high suspense captured by the fast-paced plot, the striking black and white photography, and the beautiful Nancy Coleman as a German ally. Adventure films rarely get better than this.

Flynn’s rape scandal broke when DESPERATE JOURNEY was in release theatrically, but it didn’t hurt the box-office. During that time he was filming EDGE OF DARKNESS (1943). Directed by Lewis Milestone, it brings to screen the Norwegian resistance in WWII. Flynn plays a fisherman, the leader of the underground resistance in a small village, but he gets limited screen-time in what’s more of an ensemble film including Ann Sheridan, and Walter Huston.

EDGE OF DARKNESS tries hard to be important. The script features too many moments of high melodrama and over sentimentalism that’s not supported by its form. Even if the high aspirations of the filmmakers result in a flawed film, much could be said to its credit. Milestone directs the camera with incredible vitality, inventively utilizing dolly shots and zoom lenses to punctuate movements within the frame. The score, by Franz Waxman, beautifully compliments those movements, almost in dialog with them. Flynn and Sheridan, despite their uninspired performances, share wonderful screen chemistry, and Huston is worth watching in every scene he has ever done.

NORTHERN PURSUIT (1943) was the first film he shot after his statutory rape trial. Flynn stars as a Canadian Mountie trying to infiltrate a group of German spies on a mission in the Canadian mountains. Flynn seems bored with the material and with his female co-star, Julie Bishop. Raoul Walsh goes through the motions. The result is a mediocre vehicle for both. A bare-boned, slow-moving plot turns what starts as a promising snow adventure into a rather static affair. Conceived from the start as a quickie, NORTHERN PURSUIT would serve, at most, as a pleasant Sunday matinee.

When Flynn’s contract with Warner Brothers expired, he negotiated a new one that allowed him to choose his projects. UNCERTAIN GLORY (1944) was his first choice. Co-written by famed Western author, Max Brand, UNCERTAIN GLORY isn’t quite a WWII film as much as a Film Noir set against the backdrop of Nazi occupied France. Flynn portrays French criminal Jean Picard, condemned to die by the guillotine for the crime of murder. Preferring death by a firing squad, Picard offers Inspector Marcel Bonet (Paul Lukas) to hand himself over to the Gestapo, pretending to be a wanted saboteur, saving the lives of a 100 men the Germans threaten to kill unless the saboteur is brought to justice. Reluctant to turn himself in and become a martyr, Picard tries to escape at every given chance.

Flynn’s performance is sincere even when he lies. He plays Picard with conviction, and with a melancholic quality that characterizes his best performances. Beyond the façade of the dashing hero appears a thinking man, sometimes a broken one – an enigma not just to those around him but also to himself. Picard remains one of Flynn’s most interesting and personal performances.

The final collaboration between Flynn and Walsh, OBJECTIVE, BURMA! (1945), is an unsung masterpiece. A war picture, ahead of its time, that should be celebrated alongside other classics. Flynn heads a group of paratroopers who find themselves stranded in the Japanese-occupied Burmese jungle. With few supplies, they face a long walk back to safety. Flynn’s performance is restrained and powerful, starting off as a charismatic leader, progressing to a man who sees his friends butchered by the Japanese, struggling to keep his composure. One of his personal favorites, he’s truly at his best.

OBJECTIVE, BURMA! is uncharacteristically gritty and unrelenting, offering a glimpse into the miserable state of men in war. To achieve a realistic look, Walsh decided to shoot it on location, versus on a studio set, filming in swamps around Orange County. The photography, by the great James Wong Howe, is reminiscent of the period’s newsreels, never beautifying or highlighting the actors, giving the film a documentary atmosphere (Walsh also incorporated newsreel footage within the film). The score, by Franz Waxman, achieves a lot by resorting to minimalism. As the men venture through the jungle the score remains a low, suspenseful, undertone. Instead of bathing in glorifying music, Walsh thrusts heavily in terrifying silence. In terms of form, OBJECTIVE, BURMA! almost serves as an anti-war film considering the genre’s conventions in the 1940s.

Still, OBJECTIVE, BURMA! was made during the war as a tool of Hollywood propaganda. It had to comply with certain demands to raise morale, bookending it with positive affirmations to make it heroic. But Walsh intelligently subverts this notion. In the end, when Flynn is congratulated for a successful mission, he hands his commander a stack of dog tags belonging to the men he lost. “Here’s what it cost,” he tells him. The men’s lives become nothing more than currency. Walsh asserts his grim point of view about the film industry, that “war does many things besides killing a lot of people. It can make instant millionaires out of struggling businessman.”

OBJECTIVE, BURMA! opened in Britain and closed within a week. Severely criticized for its depiction of the Americans winning Burma, when the invasion was predominantly British. It is understandable how at the time, with tensions high, such matters would be highly offensive. In retrospect, we should treat Hollywood war epics not as a depiction of history, but as historical fiction. In his autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Flynn remembers a later meeting with the King George VI. The British monarch inquired why people laugh about Flynn every time Burma is mentioned. “Sir,” responded Flynn. “Apparently the picture proved conclusively that I took Burma singlehanded and it was a pushover, sir.” This is Flynn’s war, and he’s winning.

The Women in Prison genre rarely delivers on its premise, often as depraved as the female prisoners it exploits. Locking a group of women in an iron cage, letting them fight, shower and make-out is a concept so easy to exploit that rarely do filmmakers attempt to transcend its shallowest attributes. As the back over of this new collection states, we get to “celebrate the joys of gratuitous shower scenes, cat-fights, and sweaty, scantily clad women making out in jungles,” and not much more.

The genre, or some form of it, supposedly started in 1929 with PRISONERS, directed by William A. Seiter (unfortunately this work is very hard to find) and THE GODLESS GIRL by the greatest exploitation director of all time, Cecil B. DeMille. Like many of DeMille’s films, THE GODLESS GIRL uses a moralistic story to excuse his outrageous imagery. In the 1930s the WIP film took shape as women’s melodramas that accommodated the period’s strong leading ladies. 1933 alone featured LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT with Barbara Stanwyck, LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE with Sylvia Sidney, and the experimental THE SIN OF NORA MORAN. These were never serious competitors to the male prison films. Men have been romanticized for years as rebels and wild ones while the violent woman remains a concept hard to swallow in a non-exploitive form. There is no female equivalent to William Keighly’s EACH DAWN I DIE (1939), Michael Curtiz’s 20,000 YEARS IN SING SING (1932) or Jules Dassin’s BRUTE FORCE (1947).

In 1950, John Cromwell directed CAGED, possibly the best WIP film ever made (and Eleanor Parker’s first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress). CAGED combined the melodramatic elements with a subtly sexier front. Cromwell perfected the stereotypes of inmates and guards as they were used in the years to come, portraying them with humanity rather than over-the-top caricatures. CAGED had a perfect balance of melodrama and camp. The formula was emulated in many films throughout the decade, such as WOMEN’S PRISON (1955), a mediocre affair starring the great Ida Lupino, and various drive-in productions from the minds of American International Pictures and Roger Corman.

Eleanor Parker in John Cromwell's CAGED, 1950.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, sexual mores loosened up so much that the WIP film dropped the melodrama in favor of shock value. The advantage of exploitation cinema, especially during those two decades of turmoil in the industry, was the discovery of new talents and techniques that innovated and pushed the boundaries of cinema. Roger Corman notes in his introduction to the anthology, The Cult Film Reader: “What attracts me about these type of movies is that they can be more experimental and more daring than the big budget studio films, which are often constrained by narrow economic interests, business dictates and ideological agendas.” Without that creativity, exploitation often doesn’t stand the test of time.

There are many exceptions. Excellent films such as Jess Franco’s 99 WOMEN (1969), Jonathan Demme’s CAGED HEAT (1974), Jack Hill’s THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971) & THE BIG BIRD CAGE (1972), the Japanese FEMALE CONVICT: SCORPION series and more. But the general stigma on the genre overshadows any other depiction of female prison life on film, keeping it purely a male experience. A fair share of films and television shows that featured women in prison have come out, yet a female SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION remains to be seen. The closest to a great WIP picture in the past three decades were the jail scenes in Quentin Tarantino’s JACKIE BROWN (1997).

The 3 films featured on the new DVD collection from Shock-O-Rama don’t raise the bar. They are presented in poor full-frame video quality that makes judging their cinematic qualities a little unfair. The booklet included with the set features well-researched, well-written, insightful liner-notes. They make an interesting read. If you are not looking for much other than gratuitous nudity, and don’t mind the grittiness of a worn-out VHS tape, you will have a good time.

THE HOT BOX (1972) is actually not a WIP film. A group of American nurses on a tropical island are kidnapped by revolutionaries who force them to help set up a clinic. Joe Viola directed THE HOT BOX from a script co-written by Jonathan Demme, who also produced it for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. Viola does a good job setting the tone and mood of the film. Still, the later WIP films from Corman had better scripts and stronger female protagonists in the shape of Pam Grier and Erica Gavin. Margaret Markov stars as one of the nurses. She proved her potential in the following year’s BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA.

WOMEN IN CELL BLOCK 7 (1973) tries to combine the WIP and crime genres. It satisfies neither. The film drags on despite the presence of the lovely Anita Strindberg, who turned out fine performances for directors such as Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino and Umberto Lenzi. It is the least entertaining of the three on this set.

In ESCAPE FROM HELL (1980) the inmates of a jungle prison camp are repeatedly tortured. They eventually attempt an escape with the help of the prison doctor. Eduoardo Mulargia (aka Edward G. Muller) directed this Italian WIP. ESCAPE FROM HELL indulges in more sex scenes than the other entries, but they are as violent, aggressive and unappealing as the rest of the film. Mulargia previously directed a few decent Spaghetti Westerns, including VIVA DJANGO and CJAMANGO. His past in the westerns may have helped lure Anthony Steffen to appear as the doctor in ESCAPE FROM HELL. Steffen (who was born in Brazil) was one of the most prolific Italian Western heroes, the closest in look and expression to Eastwood’s Stranger. As the drunken doctor, Steffen stumbles around the prison in frustration throughout most of the film. He isn’t to blame, for he would surely rather be toting his gun, heading west.

“American critics have never taken Delmer Daves seriously, and the way things look, they probably never will,” wrote Jean-Pierre Coursodon in 1983. Daves is somewhat forgotten, although as a director, writer and producer his film output should have acquired him Auteur status – Particularly in the Western genre.

His first Western, BROKEN ARROW (1950) starred Jimmy Stewart and was supposedly the first to focus heavily on the Native American point-of-view. 3:10 TO YUMA (1957), a classic character-driven Western had the unfortunate luck of being remade recently as a pretty shallow affair. His final Western (which many consider his masterpiece), THE HANGING TREE (1959), with Gary Cooper, Karl Malden and Maria Schell was pulled from a planned DVD release last year. Daves’ Westerns are complex character studies with a closer resemblance to Anthony Mann’s Westerns then the action westerner of the time.

According to an interview with Daves’ son, Michael, during the making of THE HANGING TREE Daves fell ill and Karl Malden took over the direction of the final shooting days. Forbidden from making any more Westerns due to his weak heart, Daves made a sharp turn to teenage melodramas, Technicolor soaps directed at a younger audience then the more adult Douglas Sirk films.

A SUMMER PLACE (1959), the first of the teen-soaps that Daves wrote, produced and directed (based on pre-existing best sellers) was a melodramatic masterpiece. Weaving together the love story of the teenage Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee (two recent Sirk graduates – IMITATION OF LIFE, 1959) and the love affair of his mother (Dorothy McGuire) and her father (Richard Egan). The parents are free-minded and the kids, innocent as they may be, are more willing to take responsibility for their actions (teen pregnancy) then their elders. Although this is a recurring theme in Daves’ subsequent teen-soaps, the complexity in which he explores this relationship is never duplicated. A SUMMER PLACE pulled Daves into what his son calls, “Troy Donahue hell.” At which point we dive into the new box-set from Warner Bros.

PARRISH (1961) is the story of a youngster’s making into a man in the world of tobacco growing. Donahue stars in the title role and Claudette Colbert as his single mother (her last film role) who marries the ruthless tobacco tycoon, Judd Raike (Karl Malden). Parrish’s mother is a supportive, understanding mother who is also his best friend. She knows she has to take care of herself and marries into the Raike’s wealth, despite Parrish’s disdain of the tycoon. Raike is disappointed in his own incompetent sons and sees in Parrish a potential heir to his kingdom.

Karl Malden’s performance is the second best in the Daves melodramas (behind Arthur Kennedy’s drunk father in A SUMMER PLACE). He brings an intensity to the film that few actors could deliver. The self-made Raike yells and berates his daughter for being a liar, then gently tells her he loves her and she should be truthful. He makes his son burn down the competitor’s plantation and then sits back, watching him getting beat up by Parrish. Judd Raike knows that nothing he can do will help save his life’s work once he’s gone, his stubborn ways leave him hopeless when he drives Parrish away, the only hope he had of preserving his name and legacy.

Before settling for Judd’s daughter, Paige (Sharon Hugueny), Parrish falls in love with a poor farm girl, Lucy (Connie Stevens), who is later found to be pregnant with Judd’s son, Edgar, and with Alison (Diane McBain), the spoiled daughter of a kind tobacco grower and Edgar’s future wife. The cinematic and melodramatic process of falling in love – by setting one’s eyes on the other for the first time – has no longevity in PARRISH. True love takes longer to establish.

PARRISH has Elia Kazan-like aspirations in its grandeur, but it’s not quite SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, nor is it A SUMMER PLACE. It is however an engaging melodrama with a lot to offer and easily the best film in this collection.

SUSAN SLADE (1961) is based on a book by Doris Hume, wonderfully titled “The Sin of Susan Slade.” According to Warners this is the first time the film has seen the light of home video.

The teenage Susan Slade (Connie Stevens) and her parents board a yacht on route to their new home. On the yacht Susan falls in love for the first time, an intense affair that leaves her pregnant. Following her lover’s death in a mountain climbing accident, Susan’s mother (Dorothy McGuire) and father (Lloyd Nolan) decide to cover-up the shame in order to protect Susan’s future – they take the newborn baby as their son and as Susan’s brother. While struggling with her mixed emotions over the situation, Susan is courted by two young men, Wells Corbett (Bert Convy) and Hoyt Brecker (Troy Donahue).

To consider SUSAN SLADE seriously would be difficult, it screens more like a parody of a teen-soap then a genuine one, especially if we assume that Daves, who had complete authorship of the film, was getting tired of the genre. To reinforce that statement, during the early romantic make-out scene between Susan and her mountain-climber, the Theme from A Summer Place plays – A throwback to Daves’ first melodrama and possibly a joke at his own expense. The classic track was highly recognizable; it became a No. 1 hit for Percy Faith in 1960 and was the best selling single of that year.

And if more evidence is needed for the indulgent extravagance of SUSAN SLADE, Daves supplies us with one of the most outrageous moments ever put on film, and a great case against smoking… or at least a sound warning about letting babies play with fire.

ROME ADVENTURE (1962) has very little going for it. Susan Pleshette stars as Prudence Bell, who wants to adventure in Rome. There she is courted by a rich man, an American student, and Troy Donahue, whose heart she has to fight Angie Dickinson for.

ROME ADVENTURE was the last collaboration between Daves and Donahue and it may have been an excuse for a vacation in Italy rather then a story to make a film of. There is very little drama or character development. Daves’s boredom with the material is evident in his screenplay, half of which reads as if it had been pasted from a guidebook of Italy. For every minute of plot we get 2 minutes of sight seeing. The only worthwhile scene in the film involves a cameo by the great trumpeter, Al Hirt, who has a blast making fun of himself, protecting his woman in a club brawl.

Coursodon thought that “Daves’s string of Troy Donahue vehicles in the sixties lowered him from semi-obscurity to total disrepute.” For better or worse, the Daves melodramas were personal movies over which the director/producer/writer had full control. With the exception of A SUMMER PLACE, they may not have reached the heights of his best Westerns, but they are closer to being the works of an Auteur then those of a hired hand.

PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND (1963) is an odd film in this collection for it is neither a drama, directed by Daves, or even romantic. Norman Taurog directed this teen-vacation comedy.

Taurog is an interesting director with an overwhelming output of films. He directed almost 180 shorts and features in a career spanning the early 1910s to 1968. The nature of his films is similar to that of a TV director – professionally made formula films, often parts of franchises – Judy Garland / Mickey Rooney musicals, Martin & Lewis comedies and Elvis films (Taurog directed more Elvis vehicles then anyone else). Despite this dubious filmography, Taurog still holds the honor of being the youngest director to ever win an Academy Award (SKIPPY, 1931).

In between Elvis movies, Taurog directed PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND, which clearly takes after MGM’s WHERE THE BOYS ARE. (1960). The film’s tag line makes this undeniable: “It’s where the boys are and the girls are.” Both take after American International Pictures’ BEACH PARTY series.

It’s strange to see the Hollywood studios trying to exploit the Beach/Ski/Pajama Party formula and give it serious tones. WHERE THE BOYS ARE starts as a fun film and then slaps the viewer across the face with issues such as rape and the results of being promiscuous. PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND is a light-hearted romp that ends with a dramatic climax and attempts a more thoughtful conclusion. Troy Donahue was always modeled to be a preppy Pat Boone to the edgy James Dean (Troy’s wardrobe often features Dean’s iconic red jacket), but for the studios to do the same to the already tame AIP productions makes little sense. How do you water down Pat Boone?

In PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND a basketball team from LA, fronted by team captain Jim Munroe (Troy Donahue), heads to Palm Springs for a weekend of fun and romance. There are some entertaining moments courtesy of Zeme North as a Judo wrestling tom-boy, kid-star Bill Mummy as a youngster she babysits, and Jerry Van Dyke the as scene-stealing Biff. Overall the stars are too old to be playing teenagers or even college students. Donahue’s youth has gone, Van Dyke’s hair is grey, and Connie Stevens looks great, but far from 18.

Troublemakers crash a house-party in one of the best scenes, but somehow they manage to look even preppier then the main guys. A hoodlum in a leather jacket makes one miss BEACH PARTY’s Erich Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck), whose party-crashing scenes are always comic highlights.

Norman Taurog went on to direct two Frankie Avalon vehicles for American International Pictures in 1965, SERGEANT DEAD HEAD and DR. GOLDFOOT AND HIS BIKINI MACHINE. The latter became a cult classic and spawned its own (terrible) remake, DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS (Directed by Mario Bava, 1966).

The WARNER BROS. ROMANCE CLASSICS COLLECTION is uneven and could have been sold as a more complete collection had PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND been replaced by A SUMMER PLACE. The lack of special features is disappointing. Commentaries or featurettes about Delmer Daves and Troy Donahue would have added much value to this collection.

The main problem in screening the DVD’s is the mediocre video transfers. Great Technicolor dramas use colors to convey emotions, and with those muted, the emotional impact is lessened. Had the films been treated as well as the releases of A SUMMER PLACE or BROKEN ARROW they would have played far better.

That said, the release of these films on DVD is welcomed and the packaging would look great on your shelf. Especially for fans of Daves, Donahue or Connie Stevens this collection is RECOMMENDED.

NOWHERE TO RUN
I want to be happy I want to be gay / I want to be normal in every way / But a mushroom cloud hangs over my dreams / It haunts my future and threatens my dreams
- ‘A Mushroom Cloud’ – Sammy Salvo (1961)

In 1942, Time Magazine announced that death rays “missed the bus for World War II,” and promised, “If a method is developed to concentrate nuclear radiations into a narrow beam, death rays may be available to enliven World War III.” [1] Scientists wished to achieve the degree of precision that would “kill small animals at 5,000 feet in three seconds,” but while these were still in the works [2] , salvation took the shape of a mushroom cloud.

Salvation quickly turned to threat when president Truman announced on September 23, 1949, that the Soviets detonated their own atom bomb. As the nations raced to create more destructive bombs, and with the rise of senator McCarthy and the House Committee of Un-American Activities, fear and paranoia were sifting through the cracks. WWIII, it seemed, would be the war to end all wars (literally, this time around). Annihilation, obliteration, eradication… nuclear bombs and radiation promised not just the end of life but the end of death.

Bert the Turtle is about to Duck and Cover

Susan Sontag recognized the trauma suffered by people in the mid-20th century: “it became clear that from now on to the end of human history, every person would spend his individual life not only under the threat of individual death, which is certain, but of something almost unsupportable psychologically – collective incineration and extinction which could come at any time, virtually without any warning.” [3]

And it did seem like there was nowhere to run or nowhere to hide, the “lying, dirty, shrewd, godless, murderous, determined” [4] communists were able to destroy the United States either from above, in the form of a military attack, or from within, by infiltrating culture and government. A nuclear attack, according to the educational film, DUCK AND COVER, could take two forms: With Warning and Without Warning.

Kids and teenagers were exposed to an adult world of horrors. They watched the educational films, took part in emergency exercises at school, carried around metal identification tags (‘dog tags’) [5] , watched the McCarthy hearings on television, and listened to detonations of atom bombs on the radio. Lewis Frumkes, Director of the Writing Center at Marymount Manhattan College, recalls being horrified at the age of 13, in 1953, listening on the radio to the execution of Ethel Rosenberg, who was charged with espionage: “I remember to this day with horror as they described Ethel Rosenberg being strapped into the electric chair. They said after the voltage went through her, blue smoke arose from her head. And as the voltage went through her body she shook and convulsed… it was so horrifying.” [6]

In April, 1954, defense was proposed as a school subject in New York. In classes like Home Economics for example, emergency cooking in preparation for a possible disaster could be taught. “Only if our youth is made fully cognizant of its added responsibilities as citizens in the newly evolving atomic era can we be assured of the will of our people to resist aggression and the ability of our people to survive its disastrous effects.” [7]

Middle-class economy was flourishing in the 1950s and the decade saw a great boom in teenage culture. Young Americans enjoyed financial freedom as their average weekly income quadrupled between 1944 and 1958 [8], by which time teen spending reached an estimated $9.5 billion yearly. This newfound freedom, and the changing system of film exhibition, lead to the explosion of genre cinema, and in the heart of it…

…THE ATOMIC SPECTACLE

Lee Merlin, the Last 'Ms. Atom Bomb', 1957

Pop-culture adopted the ATOMIC idea. Everybody joined in the fun: Elvis was billed as ‘The Atomic Powered Singer’; Gene Vincent was ‘The Hottest Thing Since the Hydrogen Bomb’; Miss Atomic Bomb was crowned in Las Vegas; Atomic candy was sold to kids; and an Allied Artists ad proclaiming their ‘New Box Office Power’ had a mushroom cloud as its background. [9]

The ‘Paramount decision of 1948’ separated the film studios from their theaters, resulting in their loss of control over both exhibition and audiences in the United States. Drive-In cinemas popped up all over the country, catering mainly to teenagers. This brought a slew of low-budget science fiction, horror, juvenile delinquent and rocknroll films.

This type of ‘exploitation’ cinema was a new breed between the Poverty-Row ‘B’-movie and the ‘classic exploitation’ film – alternative independent productions that relied on forbidden spectacle, namely drugs, sex, and violence – to set them apart from Hollywood product. The new producers decided that instead of being a ‘B’ to a Hollywood ‘A’ movie, they could produce their own double features and gain more capital. Their product was so popular that many of the studios hopped on the genre bandwagon as well, either by producing their own or distributing independent productions.

Many of the productions revolved around atomic fear, the consequences of radiation, and alien invasion. They offered visions of space travel, radiation-induced-giant-insects, monsters, mind control and post-nuclear worlds: “SEE! The World Ended By Atomic Fury! SEE! Fantastic World of Death and Horror!” announced ads for Corman’s DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955). That film was so successful that after only two months in release it earned $400,000 on a budget of $65,000. [10] Susan Sontag theorizes that fantasy of destruction can normalize what is psychologically unbearable; it beautifies and neutralizes the world. [11]

Beverly Garland with a close personal friend of Lee Van Cleef's

The Alien-Invasion films often tapped into the Red-Scare, with aliens attacking earth from above but also undermining humankind from within. In Roger Corman’s IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956), Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) is convinced that an alien invader (whom he calls “a personal friend of mine”) wants to help humans by eliminating their hate, bitterness, dreams and emotions. When the alien starts taking over the minds of the people, hysterical realists assess that they are “in the middle a communist uprising.” A logical assumption, as certain towns in the US performed security exercises that simulated a communist takeover of the town.

Even that genre was inseparable from a notion of atomic threat. Roy Frumkes, the editor of Films In Review, remembers: “The fact that they were all set in the desert really worked on my subconscious, because that was where I had heard all the bomb tests were. So when I saw a Sci-Fi film like IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, it wasn’t about atomic war but it was set in the desert and it added this extra chill.” [12]

Aliens sometimes could cause destruction by taking over the minds of atomic scientists and researchers to use our own power against us. The Kronos (KRONOS, 1957), an alien machine described by one reviewer as “a cross between a futuristic skyscraper and a present-day kitchen appliance,” [13] sets itself on Earth and grows as it absorbs atomic energy. With every H-Bomb the government launches at it, Kronos causes more and more destruction.

Roger Corman is one of the most prolific producers and directors of these genres, and his vision, as would be discussed later in the article, is unique. Among his nuclear-related films: NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957), ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957), TEENAGE CAVEMAN (1958), and LAST WOMAN ON EARTH (1960). In 1945, Corman himself was training to participate in the invasion of Japan, when the bomb went off: “I’m part of that group that said, “Thank god for the atomic bomb.” It very possibly saved my life. But at the same time, I also had to say, “My God, what a monstrous, terrible thing!” [14]

“THE MAINSPRING OF CIVIL DEFENSE”: FAMILIES AND SHELTERS

“The family is the mainspring of Civil Defense. Get your family to work as a team in preparing for emergencies,” instructed a 1955 leaflet by the Federal Civil Defense Administration. [15] On July 25, 1961, President Kennedy said in a televised address: “In the event of an attack, the lives of those families which are not hit in a nuclear blast and fire can still be saved – if they can be warned to take shelter and if that shelter is available. We owe that kind of insurance to our families – and to our country.”

PANIC IN YEAR ZERO (1960), directed by Ray Milland for American International Pictures, offers the best portrayal of defined roles in the family unit in the midst of a nuclear crisis. While on a family trip, Henry Baldwin (Ray Milland) and his family find out that their home, Los Angeles, has been wiped out by a nuclear attack. Immediately all hell breaks loose, California turns into a Wild West where law is meaningless and people have to defend themselves in its absence.

Henry knows just what to do. He equips his family with enough food to last them a few months and weapons for self defense. His son, Rick (Frankie Avalon), learns from his father about protecting the family, in preparation for his role as a future patriarch, “I want you to use that gun,” says Henry, “But I want you to hate it.” When the family functions in the normal world at the beginning they are defined by age: the kids, Rick and Karen (Mary Mitchel), are in the back seat while the parents are in the front. After the bomb drops and danger arises, the mother, Ann (Jean Hagen) moves to the back and Rick sits in the front with his father, separating roles by gender.

Henry shelters his family in a mountain cave and it is a classic fallout shelter in many ways, having enough products to last them for a long time underground while being surrounded by the immediate family. The men must hunt and the women take care of their needs, reverting to an old way of living, typical of the American Western. Although Henry’s views of society are grim to say the least (“Our country is still full with thieving, murdering patriots”), the reaffirmation that “there must be no end – only new beginnings,” prevails.

Milland and Avalon: I want you to use the gun, but I want you to hate it.

Family and shelters are inseparable and stress the importance of being informed, especially by the head of the family. When a number of individuals who don’t form a family occupy a shelter, distress and conflict arise. In DAY THE WORLD ENDED the father secures his house, measures radiation, and is handy with a gun, for the protection of his daughter. A group of strangers invade their shelter, causing violent conflict in which the only survivors are members of the existing family or soon-to-be family (the daughter’s future husband); Roger Corman’s LAST WOMAN ON EARTH (1960) suggests deep sea as a shelter but the 3 who survive the blast, a dysfunctional husband and wife and their friend, end up in a deadly conflict in which only the married couple prevails.

A police officer forms an unnatural community out of a group of strangers in THIS IS NOT A TEST (1962). Warned of a coming attack, he stops a number of cars and forces everyone to take shelter in the back of a truck, which leads to their descent into madness, murder, suicide, animal cruelty and terrible paranoia over the futile situation and the useless role of the law in the wake of a nuclear attack. When the bomb drops, the truck and everything around it is instantly wiped away.

In 1959, a contest set by Bomb Shelters, Inc. prompted newlyweds Melvin and Maria Mininson of Miami, Florida to spend a two-week honeymoon in a fallout shelter, for which they were rewarded with a real honeymoon. The Parkers of southern California did the same later that year and nine months later had a child conceived in the shelter. [16] The shelter was culturally tied to the concept of family, encouraging conformism for the sake of protection.

Bomb shelter construction must have been a mighty profitable business, but since the products were never put to the test, their real value is questionable. This is parodied in hindsight by the Happy Days episode, ‘Be the First on Your Block’ (original airdate 5/7/1974) in which Howard Cunningham buys into the pitch of a sleazy salesman and announces the building of a shelter for his family. Soon the whole neighborhood is trying to secure a spot inside it in case of an attack. In Joe Dante’s MATINEE (1993), exploitation film producer Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman), cracks open the door to a fallout shelter using a crowbar and jokes, “boy, am I in the wrong business?” comparing the cheapness of his productions to the cheapness of the shelter product.

For an economy that is supposedly affecting DVD sales, you wouldn’t know it to see the mega-disc-collections appearing in stores currently. As if the Fox Hitchcock Collection wasn’t enough to clog a DVD collector’s shelf, the new Fox Entertainment Murnau/Borzage/Fox box requires the construction of a new shelf entirely. I haven’t seen the inside of that box yet, and perhaps there’s a way, once opened, to deconstruct it so that it fits a normal shelf – but short of that, this $200.+ release may require some architectural rethinking. To honor Fox’s chutzpah, and at the request of foreign film societies, we’ve resurrected from FIR’s archives a 1974 article by William K. Everson which deals with Fox’s preservation efforts, including the work of Murnau and Borzage.

If, by chance, your friends’/spouses’ apartments aren’t quite large enough to encompass that volume, and yet we know that Xmas calls for a more substantial gift than a single platter, below are a few good choices for your consideration…

From SONY Pictures Home Entertainment comes a title we thought might never make an appearance, and it has arrived inside a most elegantly designed box cover – the Powell & Pressburger fantasy masterpiece A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (aka STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN). This was cinematographer Jack Cardiff’s first feature and, great as his body of work is, he never surpassed it. And that includes the likes of BLACK NARCISSUS, THE RED SHOES, PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (recently restored and hopefully soon to come to DVD in its sparkling new incarnation) and RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2. The British Technicolor is admirably recreated here. Subdued hues are infiltrated with myriad strokes and shades of luminous red. It’s a constant and delerious feast for the eyes. And the story’s not bad either. Powell (friend and) aficionado Marty Scorsese gives an American historical perspective in which he and his pals – amongst them Coppola and Spielberg – all loved the Archers’ films, but knew nothing about the filmmakers. David Lean, Carol Reed,Alfred Hitchcock — these they knew, but not Powell & Pressburger. In the decades since, Scorsese has done his best to remedy that situation for all of us. His editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, eventually married Powell. Also on the disc – a commentary track by historian Ian Christie, his delivery decidedly low key alongside the passion of the Scorsese, but it’s worth a listen for its many factual insights.

Also included on this double-disc edition is Powell’s last feature film, AGE OF CONSENT, made after his partnership with Pressburger had ended, released in 1969, truncated in the US, but seen here in its 103 minute form, and in a worthy transfer. Made outside the European studio system within which he’d functioned for decades, the film has an independent sensibility – including less glamorous lighting and more disrupting room tones, some of both of which Powell uses to his advantage. It also features a 24-year-old Helen Mirren (last year’s Best Actress AA winner for THE QUEEN) in her first performance as the island-bound Cora, much of it gloriously in the nude. Not since TARZAN AND HIS MATE, or THE MERMAIDS OF TIBURON (available on DVD from VCI Entertainment) has there been such a nude underwater swimming scene. Ms. Mirren, in a recently filmed interview, remembers the film the way one would a first lover. Also present is Scorsese, again making sharp insights in his brief intro/extro, and historian Kent Jones on the commentary track…

The earlier scenes are wooden and artificial, with oddly paced editing, leavened only by the presence of quirky Australian actor Frank Thring (THE VIKINGS, BEN-HUR, KING OF KINGS, EL CID, MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME). After disgruntled artist Bradley Morahan (James Mason) retreats to the Great Barrier Reef, the tone finds itself and stays put. It’s a delightfully rambling treatise on an artist’s obsessive personality – and in that way a statement by the director no less personal than the one that got him in trouble with PEEPING TOM. Mason co-produced with Powell, and I sense that it was personal for the actor as well – his THE HORSE’S MOUTH. Mason was sixty at the time, and his relationship with the supposedly-barely-legal Cora was pushing the envelope as much as the nudity. (Makes one wonder where Clint Eastwood’s BREEZY has been hiding). Powell and Mason yearned to work together again on a version of THE TEMPEST, some aspects of which are evident in this endeavor.

An aside: you know how sometimes there’s an information sheet adhered to the back of a DVD box by a dab of rubbery glop, which you slowly remove once you’ve unpacked the box? Well on this sheet there’s a photo of Helen Mirren in which she looks more stunning than she does in the actual film. So don’t be so quick to pull it off and trash it.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK – THE PREMIERE COLLECTION
Recommendation by Glenn Andreiev

20th Century Fox’s ALFRED HITCHCOCK – THE PREMIERE COLLECTION is an amazing treat for the Hitchcock fan, and essential for all of us who love great movies! The first of the eight films in the set is the silent 1926 THE LODGER, Hitchcock’s debut exercise in suspense cinema. This tale of a mysterious, cloaked tenant who may be a depraved sexual serial killer is an opportunity to see Hitchcock begin using his beloved cinematic trademarks. This lodger turns out to be a victim of mistaken identity; the police tracking him are fearful, and there’s a young women who places herself in horrid danger to save him. The film ends with the first climatic Hitchcock chase. Before this box set, those wanting to see the film, directed by the then 27-year old Hitchcock, had to settle for contrasty public domain dupes, usually made off of already-battered 16mm prints. One would think Hitchcock filmed THE LODGER with an elevator security camera! Here we get a beautifully restored LODGER, bursting in clarity, with gorgeous blue and red tinting, and that welcome chilling sense of dread that Hitchcock would build on in later years. The LODGER disc comes with great extras, one of which is “Hitchcock 101”, a short wherein Hitchcock’s grand-daughter tells of taking a college course on her grand-dad’s films – and she never told her professor who her famous grandpa was!

Others on this pristine collection are: SABOTAGE, YOUNG AND INNOCENT, REBECCA, LIFEBOAT, SPELLBOUND, NOTORIOUS, and THE PARADINE CASE.

To read the rest of Glenn’s in coverage…

This new addition to the excellent Walt Disney Treasures series collects the full 20-episode ANNETTE serial as it aired in the 1957-1958 season of The Mickey Mouse Club. After a slow start, ANNETTE soon drags you into a world of nostalgia, wishing you could get a shake at a malt shop, or take a hayride on the way to a BBQ, singing Disney’s greatest hits. ANNETTE’s vision of wholesomeness seems as if it may have been nostalgic even for those who watched it when it originally aired, as it obviously reflects the Disney 1950s vision of America, more then the country’s social realities.

ANNETTE stars Walt Disney’s favorite, and only, hand-picked member of the Mickey Mouse Club, Annette Funicello, as a dark-skinned farm girl who moves in with her aunt and uncle in an all-white, middle-class American suburb. She soon finds a friend in the class hunk, Steve, and a nemesis in his rich, snotty girlfriend, Laura. Other characters include Jet, a farm girl who is not a member on the cool-crowd, and Steady Ware, an always-hungry, dancing-pro, loud-mouthed youngster who hangs out with the older teenagers. Steady, holding up a giant, raw steak and telling the girl obsessed with him to beat off, is a sight to be seen. This lightweight soap is the closest live action could get to an Archie comic book (certainly more then ARCHIE: TO RIVERDALE AND BACK AGAIN, 1990).

If a person can authentically and realistically posses the Disney magic, it is Annette Funicello. There isn’t a shred of negativity throughout her career, and always with the most sincere intentions. From the Mickey Mouse Club through her roles in Disney movies and the American International Pictures BEACH PARTY series, she encompasses the idea of the ‘American Sweetheart’ more then any other. Her charm is still irresistible in her last feature film role as Annette in BACK TO THE BEACH (1987), but how could you ever resist the girl who inspired Paul Anka’s ‘Puppy Love’?

The DVD features 2 full episodes of The Mickey Mouse Club (the debut and concluding episodes of her serial) and 2 featurettes: Produced in 1993, “Musically Yours, Annette” looks at Annette’s musical career and the creation of her unique sound. “To Annette, With Love” is a loving tribute featuring some of Annette’s friends and her husband. The set truly does right by Annette, and is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

DR. SYN: THE SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH, sits waiting in another Disney tin, on two discs, one containing the three-part TV presentation, the other, the tightened, theatrical feature. As Disney maven Leonard Maltin rightly explains, some degree of nuance is lost in condensing the series to a little over an hour and a half, though he praises the editing in the shorter version. You’ll find yourself in a conundrum when you watch them: the shorter piece is compressed, sometimes to its detriment, but it moves quickly, whereas the three-part version moves slowly enough, at times, to lose narrative focus. I’m for the alacrity of the condensed version.

Maltin also acknowledges Hammer Films’ take on the same historical story – 1962’s DR. CLEGG, starring Peter Cushing. What he doesn’t mention is how Hammer-esque the 1963 DR. SYN is, even replicating some Hammer musical ideas in the score. Of course Disney had more money to lavish on its productions than Hammer ever dreamed of spending, and so this is a particularly stunning movie, with dazzling day-for-night sequences, a terrific, theme-song driven title montage, and a fine cast, featuring Patrick McGoohan, who had a clipped way of delivering dialogue, as he does here, but as his alter-ego, The Scarecrow, he ramps it up a few notches, barking out his ultra-clipped dialogue like a burp-gun. Others who excel in the cast are Michael Hordern and Geoffrey Keen. James Neilson, very much a TV director, and at that very much a Disney in-house director, does an adequate job with atmosphere. The editing in the feature version does the rest.

2009 will see FIR’s tardy entrée into the esoteric world of BLURAY, but that doesn’t keep us from mentioning the medium a month early: Disney’s BluRay release of all three PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films is a really neat Stocking Stuffer. Though the surprise success of the series was due, without doubt, to Johnny Depp’s fey interpretation of the lead character, he was supported with the most amazing make-up and CGI effects, both of which beg for the heightened detail of BluRay to strut their stuff, in particular the maelstrom sequence which, for me, was the best use of Special Effects in its year, and must be seen in that format to be believed.

From BBC Video comes a three-disc collection: KEN RUSSELL AT THE BBC. On the cover, Russell strikes a pensive pose, no doubt contemplating further sensational imagery he can perpetrate on an unsuspecting public. These six films, representative of his BBC work, are in some quarters considered for Russell what the Mutual shorts were to Chaplin. They show the artist finding himself, and at the same time creating his best work…or much of it.

Certainly SONG OF SUMMER (1968) fits that description. It is a somber B&W meditation on obsession, selfless devotion, artistic inspiration, and destructive egotism. Russell regular Max Adrian plays Frederick Delius, crippled and in need of a slave, who appears in the form of cinema pianist Eric Fenby (the film is based on his autobiography). It is a painful, claustrophobically controlled feature. The only Russell theatrical feature that comes near it in tone is SAVAGE MESSIAH (1972, currently unavailable on DVD). And it is a unique work of art, even among the many films about composers directed by Russell himself.

Oddly, this version, and one presented on a single disc several years ago by The British Film Institute, are different cuts, and neither of them are the cut originally aired, and which still exists on 16mm rental prints (a market that sees less and less commercial viability nowadays). I’m assuming the rights to footage from Laurel and Hardy’s WAY OUT WEST was not originally licensed for home video, and so had to be deleted. But the two releases also start with different shots? And to further complicate the issue, the BFI DVD release is smooth and creamy in its look, while the new BBC release is contrasty and harsh – aggressively different visual presentations, and I couldn’t tell you which was Russell’s intent. They both work, but accentuate different emotional attitudes in the narrative. I had to keep both.

ELGAR (1962) is 54 minutes long, a good documentary which was apparently more radical in its day (the box cover claims he was the first filmmaker to use re-enactments, and in his interview on disc one, he affirms this), tracing the life of the composer, who was recognized very late in his desperate career, always teetering on the verge of poverty. There’s good archival footage and still photos, all set to his music. And long, sensuous B&W tracking shots of his time in the country as a boy, which would carry him through his life, past great depressions and professional set-backs.

Others in the collection are THE DEBUSSY FILM (1965 – with Oliver Reed and Vladek Sheybal), ALWAYS ON SUNDAY (1965), ISADORA: THE BIGSEST DANCER IN WORLD (1966) – a rambunctious reverie on Isadora Duncan which far out-passions Karel Reiz’s elegant but sterile version, made the same year, with Vanessa Redgrave in the title role. DANTE’S INFERNO (1967), with Oliver Reed (another Russell regular) as poet/painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. And there are special features, such as an 81-year-old Russell sitting outdoors on a park bench, commenting animatedly about his early work, while we are treated to fabulous footage of him at work in his BBC days, the footage looking as if he were in one of his own films. There is much Russell yet to make its way to DVD, but this is a wonderful, rewatchable dose of his output, and it should be owned.

On October 25th, we lost writer/director Gerard Damiano, aged 80. A major footnote in film history, he was the director of the first porno films to go mainstream in the early 70s. DEEP THROAT (1972) was distinguished by some smart editing, and THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES (1973) was a hard-core version of “No Exit”. Both films therefore had marketable pretentions of class, allowing the public to cross the X-barrier and see them without recrimination. DEEP THROAT made an estimated $600 million dollars.

A year after these milestones, I was working for Great Scott, a PR agency, and was put in charge of running the only (to my knowledge) Academy Award campaign for a porno film – Gerard Damiano’s MEMORIES WITHIN MISS AGGIE (1974). It was a miserable little piece of celluloid, but with touches of Ingmar Bergman in the characters’ behavior, and in the cinematography, thus, once again, giving the director’s work a veneer of respectability (on IMDB it notes that the film opened on July 8th in Sweden). What it really delivered, however, was an appalling vision of sex, and of the human body. I begged Boris Kaufman, the man who shot ON THE WATERFRONT, then in his 80s, not to come to the screening I’d set for Guild members. I didn’t offer quite the same advice to Tony Randall, who showed up with his coat pulled over his head.

One of the few articulate advocates of sexuality in the arts was Al Goldstein. (He and my brother Lewis had been the two outspoken members of an advanced philosophy class at NYU.) Goldstein found his calling, creating the publication Screw Magazine, which incurred its share of obscenity lawsuits, each of which Goldstein battled in the courts, and in the pages of his paper, winning some landmark cases, and hemorrhaging money in the process. Decades later, when Goldstein was penniless and his professional belongings were about to be either sold off or destroyed, Bill Lustig (owner of Blue Underground, a cherished DVD label) bumped into the former editor, who ended up working at the 2nd Avenue Deli in lower Manhattan, and learned that the entire collection of tapes of Goldstein’s cable show ‘Midnight Blue’ – representing the years 1975-2002 – were among the articles in a warehouse about to be destroyed. Bill struck a licensing deal with Goldstein for the tapes, which saved the show for posterity, and out of these countless hours, he has pieced together four feature-length DVDs (each running two hours), compilations of ‘Midnight Blue’ highlights, which are packaged in one collection for your viewing pleasure.

The fifth DVD in the boxed set is a feature doc – PORN KING – which displays the arc of Goldstein’s career, brought down in the end by his own self-destructive nature. This collection is not only valuable for historical purposes, but for its many pleasures. Guests such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, O.J. Simpson, Russ Meyer and Deborah Harry make appearances, and the work of porn pioneers such as Harry Reems, Georgina Spelvin, Marilyn Chambers, and Annie Sprinkle (who increased her professional options by taking classes at The School of Visual Arts) are on display. And throughout it all, Goldstein’s irreverent personality sets the tone. The titles of the compilations discs are: ‘The Deep Throat Special Edition’, ‘Porn Stars of the 70’s’, ‘Celebrities Edition’, and ‘Freaks & Geeks.’ Also included in the box is a sweet little booklet featuring a history of Screw Magazine along with reproductions of several of its covers, including the one done by R. Crumb, who also appears in the ‘Celebrities Edition’ DVD.

From Kino comes THE GRIFFITH MASTERWORKS COLLECTION, VOLUME 2

This includes several of Griffith’s features we’ve been really pining for, such as WAY DOWN EAST (1920), which, like his epics of the period, ran a staggering 149 minutes. Each of these features include many supplements, in this case a score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, notes on Lottie Blair Parker’s original play, photos of William Brady’s 1903 stage version, and a clip of the ice flow sequence from the Edison Studio’s UNCLE TOM’S CABIN.

The other features and shorts on this five-disc boxed set are: SALLY OF THE SAWDUST (1925 – D.W.Griffith & W.C. Fields? And with an intro by Orson Welles), THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE (1914 – 84 mins), EDGAR ALLEN POE (1909, 7 mins), ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1930, 90 mins, ‘talking’), and THE STRUGGLE (1931, 87 mins, also ‘talking’). The difference between ABRAHAM LINCOLN and THE STRUGGLE is major, and it seems clear that if he’d had another few shots at it, he might have finally adapted to the ‘talkies’, but it didn’t happen. Uneven, to be sure, THE STRUGGLE has some powerful scenes, and it features one of the very few performances by the extremely exotic Zita Johann.

After a bad experience with Karl Freund on THE MUMMY (1932) she ditched Hollywood, a loss for the film capital, and for us. She doesn’t have the big emotional role here, sadly, but she’s still mesmerizing to look at.

And the plum in the pudding is a near three-hour documentary on the life and career of the director: D.W. GRIFFITH: FATHER OF FILM by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. Brownlow, for the one or two of you who don’t know, is the world’s leading film historian, in part because of his remarkable archeological digs into the remnants of motion picture history, and equally for his filmmaking and literary skills. His docs are passionate, cinematic, and bring the shadows of the silent era to life for us. As do his books. ‘The Parades Gone By’ is still one of the ten greatest tomes on cinema history.

BOOKS:

UNFILTERED: THE COMPLETE RALPH BAKSHI.

This coffee table book from Universe, a division of Rizzoli International Publications, is a work of art depicting the work of a major artist in the field of animation. Bakshi, a gifted, difficult artist, has had a rewarding career and often a ground-breaking one. Best remembered for FRITZ THE CAT, a sweet translation of the R. Crumb comics, his work spans many genres within the animation field. More often autobiographical (or at least ferociously personal) than not, his best may be AMERICAN POP, but if so, it is followed closely by HEAVY TRAFFIC, COONSKIN, WIZARDS, and HEY GOOD LOOKIN’ (yet to find its way to DVD!!)

The book is a masterpiece of design, copiously illustrated with full color reproductions of not only film frames, but sketches, doodles, storyboards, etc. It’s informative, outrageous, and sexy. The Herculean task of assembling this book goes to Jon M. Gibson & Chris McDonnell. Quentin Tarentino does a Foreword, but Bakshi gets the last word.

CHEAP SCARES! LOW BUDGET HORROR FIMMAKERS SHARE THEIR SECRETS, by Greg Lamberson. From McFarland.

Greg Lamberson is nothing if not renaissance prolific. He’s a novelist (JOHNNY GRUESOME), a screenwriter (SLIME CITY), a film director (NAKED FEAR, UNDYING LOVE) and producer, a promoter, a horror website publisher/editor (FearZone.com), a columnist. He’s everywhere in this country at once, hawking his work and churning out new books or articles during breaks from his horror convention table signings. Did I hear he was going toe-to-toe with Caroline Kennedy for the Senate seat? Maybe not, but why would I not be surprised. And he helps raise a lovely little daughter simultaneously with all this.

‘Cheap Scares!’ is a terrific overview of the many and terrible obstacles awaiting the neophyte filmmaker on his journey through the process. It’s organized and written by Greg, and by interviews he’s conducted with key figures in the low-budget end of the genre, including Larry Fessenden, Scooter McRae, Brett Piper, James Lorinz, Paige Davis, Stephen Biro, and…alright, so I’m included, so what? I should have probably relegated this review to someone else at FIR, right? But hey, it’s Christmas, it’s my gift to all of you. Check it out.

(Warning: Last paragraph of the review contains major spoilers – As it is marked below, read at your own discretion.)

In Vincente Minnelli’s TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN (1962) Edward G Robinson plays a has-been Hollywood director who fights to stay relevant as he works on low-budget productions in Italy. Legitimately feeling that he is putting great work on celluloid, Robinson begins to fear that he may have lost touch with reality and his great days are behind him. Few are the directors who managed to stay relevant and vitalize their careers as the decades passed them. Some faded from the industry while making mediocre works, some decided to quit, and some were deemed irrelevant by the studios and were never able to raise money to make new pictures.

In the 1984 Clint Eastwood film, WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART, Eastwood plays a character based on director John Huston in the production story of THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951). Huston was a rough and rugged man’s man, square jaw and all. So was Don Siegel, one of Eastwood’s great influences. Both, as directors, were able to reinvent themselves throughout their long careers and create work that was edgier, cooler and more engaging then anything young Hollywood had to offer. Eastwood follows in their path.

The last of the square-jawed heroes, Clint Eastwood is an enigma. He projects raw energy and pure force, not unlike that of Elvis or James Dean, and can give Lee Marvin and Steve McQueen a run for their money in the realm of ‘cool’. As an actor, his mere presence is enough to make every frame memorable. As a director, he is a man of action, focused on pure storytelling and so lacking of pretense that even his mediocre outings are greater then those who regularly dominate the box-office charts or award ceremonies. Such longevity is a true sign of greatness, and is why few reviews of new Clint Eastwood releases seem to be written without referring to the man himself.

GRAN TORNIO, Eastwood’s latest, is the story of Walt Kowalski, a recent widower and veteran of the Korean War. Walt has seen his generation slowly fade away and his neighborhood turn into a gang-infested ghetto. He is deemed irrelevant by society, even by his kids who try to send him to a retirement community, or his granddaughter who wants to inherit his Gran Torino, a car he built in the 1970s when working for Ford. Walt’s metaphorical demise is strengthened by the physical realities when a doctor informs him he is dying.

Walt Kowalski is that rugged man – the one with the square jaw – at 78. He has no sentiments for political correctness, is somewhat of a racist, and a rather hateful individual. His character is perfectly summed up in the opening scene, when he disapprovingly growls as he sees his granddaughter’s bellybutton-piercing at his wife’s funeral. (Eastwood’s growl alone demands an Academy Award nomination, if not the golden statue itself.)

A Hmong family moves into the house next to the Kowalski residence, consisting of a grandmother, her widow daughter and her two teenage kids, Sue and Thao. Although at first Walt is resistant to form any type of relationship with the Asian family, he soon strikes a friendship with Sue. After the emasculated Thao fails to steal his Gran Torino as a gang initiation test, Walt takes him under his wing and helps him reject the gang and reform. When the gang persists and all else fails, Walt sets up to fight them alone, taking upon himself the mantle of a vigilante.

There have been recent attempts to revive the vigilante genre, the ‘urban western’: Jody Foster in THE BRAVE ONE; Kevin Bacon in DEATH SENTENCE; The Rock in the remake of WALKING TALL; and the upcoming remake of DEATH WISH (by Sylvester Stallone). But no one can out-do Eastwood, who set the tone to the genre as DIRTY HARRY in 1971. GRAN TORINO was initially rumored to be an entry in the Dirty Harry series. Eastwood laughed the rumors off but the film is not far from it. Walt is portrayed with the same ferocious no-nonsense approach that characterizes many of Don Siegel’s heroes.

The beauty of GRAN TORINO as a vigilante film is that it embraces the fact that the hero is a dying 78-year-old man who has many limitations, even though we’d like to conceive of him as invincible. Walt represents the disintegration of that hero by having him face the changing landscape of the American suburb and American culture. Unlike the hero of the vigilante films, who is often haunted by a traumatic event to be redeem of, or take revenge for, Walt Kowalski’s redemption comes in the form of his relationship with Thao.

Walt becomes a father figure to Thao, who is surrounded and raised by 3 women. From Walt, Thao learns of cars, how to fix things around the house, and how to talk to girls – how to be a man. Walt is able to experience what he missed with his real sons, with whom he failed to establish any type of meaningful relationship. He finds a son to pass his wisdom to and help grow into his own.

A popular sub-genre of the Western in the 1970s was the end-of-the-West storyline. Two come to mind in discussion of GRAN TORINO. The Sergio Leone produced, Tonino Valerii directed, MY NAME IS NOBODY (1973), in which Henry Fonda plays Jack Beauregard, an old-West gun-slinging legend at the turn-of-the-century who can’t keep up with the times and wishes to retire. With the assistance of a young successor, Nobody (Terence Hill), Jack becomes a living legend by fighting alone against a group of 150 men and then fakes his own demise in a gunfight against Nobody, promising that instead of falling from grace would remain a legend in death, and helping to create a legend for a new generation – the man who killed Jack Beauregard.

The second is Don Siegel’s THE SHOOTIST (1976), which is interesting in considering GRAN TORINO, as the latter almost feels like an urban remake. Although not one of Siegel’s best directorial efforts, THE SHOOTIST is heartfelt and significant as John Wayne’s last film. Set at the turn-of-the-century, It tells the story of a J.B.Books, a legend of the old-West who is dying of cancer. When a doctor (James Stewart) informs him of his imminent death, J.B. is prompted to plan out his demise.

Like Walt Kowalski, J.B. is a relic of the West, a legend in name, but one who gets very little respect and finds very little to relate to in the changing landscape of 1901. He doesn’t have much to call his own other then his name and legend (which for Walt is represented by a chest of memorabilia from the Korean War), even those are in jeopardy when a young reporter suggests writing his biography, focusing solely on the bloody spectacle of his gun-slinging career, that everyone seems to detest.

J.B. takes a room in the house of widower Bond Rogers (Lauren Bacall), who resists him at first but warms up as she starts seeing beyond his violent reputation. Her son, Gillom (Ron Howard), constantly looks for father figures in the wrong places. After trying to sell J.B.’s horse, Dollar, behind his back, Gillom finds in J.B. a father figure to help shape him into a man and save him from associating with the bad crowd.

J.B. and Walt share a similar storyline; they represent a generation of men that finds itself lost to modernity as they pass their mantle to a new generation and bid goodbye to an old way of life. John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, in their respective roles, load the films not only with the weight of their personality, but being genre icons, carry a fistful of film history (pun intended) that makes their symbolism nothing short of poetic.

(Spoilers ahead…)

With the risk of losing his legendary reputation and afraid of his inescapable painful demise, J.B. decides to choose his own ending by calling out three of his enemies to a duel from which he doesn’t expect to come out alive. Walt, who is dying (the exact cause is never revealed), decides to sacrifice himself in a similar way, by orchestrating a duel of many against one. He acts to preserve the next generation, sacrificing himself to rid the neighborhood of a street gang so that Thao could have chance in life. Gillom inherits J.B.’s horse, Dollar. Thao gets the Gran Torino.

Menahem Golan, sometime in the 80's

Right off the bat I must admit that I am biased. I admire this man. Menahem Golan is approaching his 80th year and showing no sign of stopping. His latest film came out in Israel’s theaters in July, he is trying to get a large international production off the ground, has just directed a stage show, and has various other projects floating around. The man is a purist; his dedication and love for film is undeniable and scarce in today’s generation of filmmakers. Jerry Lewis coined the term, “The Total Filmmaker”; Golan fits the bill.

Golan is a pillar of the Israeli film industry; take him out of the equation and its history will collapse. From the 1960’s to the 1980’s, he and his cousin, Yoram Globus, were involved in the creation of every genre and trend in the industry as well as responsible for most of the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations garnered by Israeli films.

In 1979, Golan and Globus bought The Cannon Group and for the next 10 years they produced a slew of action films, dance musicals, teen comedies, etc. By1986 they were producing more films per year then all the Hollywood studios put together. Golan often said he would feel like a criminal making one $30 million dollar film rather than 30 films for $1 million each. The quality of their product was far from consistent but often extremely popular. But they overextended themselves by taking over theater chain after theater chain in Europe, and eventually Thorn EMI in England. At the end of 1986 their financial problems were piling up and by the end of the decade they were going bankrupt.

Cannon’s importance and relevance to the American film industry has been downplayed. Their ultimate demise allowed for them to be forgotten. Their Hollywood misadventures are legendary, and it is easy to be critical since many people claim to have been hurt by Cannon. Producing films is no reason to mistreat anyone, but in reality that is the case with an endless line of film producers in a town that was built on backstabbing. While criticism is legitimate, their achievements should be looked upon as well. Shelly Winters, who worked with Golan many times, once compared the cousins to the old Hollywood moguls: “They’re like the old-style bastards. We hated them, but they loved films. They created great stars and great films.”

Cannon reached groundbreaking agreements with the Hollywood unions that made it possible for the independents to grow. They were amongst the first to utilize the home-video market and they created stars and genres that have an impact on Hollywood to this day (clearly the successful STEP-UP series is the evolution of BREAKIN’).

In the decade that preceded Miramax, before independent cinema was “hip”, before it became a genre rather then a reality, Golan pushed Cannon to take chances on many directors who had a hard time getting the major studios to produce their movies. A partial list includes John Cassavetes, Robert Altman, Andrei Konchalovski, Franco Zeffirelli, Jean Luc Godard, Lina Wertmüller, Norman Mailer and Fons Rademakers – whose Cannon-produced THE ASSAULT (1986) won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Roger Ebert said in 1987: “No other production organization in the world today has taken more chances with serious, marginal films than Cannon.”

In his diary from the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, “Two Weeks in the Midday Sun”, Ebert writes that for him, Golan was the hero of the festival. On May 7th, 1986, Variety printed this joke from Cannes:

Continue to the Interview

LEMON POPSICLE @ 30

'I was 17 and she was only 16. We laid on the beach and listened to Elvis. The moon was full. It happened in the summer of '58'. LEMON POPSICLE (Israel)

“If you wore pointy shoes, grease in your hair, walking on your way to a party with an Elvis record in your hand – you felt like a king.” reminisced Boaz Davidson. He grew up in 1950’s Tel-Aviv, where teenagers formed street gangs, hung out at the local ice-cream parlor and were first introduced to sexuality. All in the key of the latest Elvis record, even if it took it a year to get there from the U.S. “Every Friday we would meet and dance, and dream of Dodge cars, of Chevrolets…” He told an Israeli reporter*, “the American dream is far and wonderful when you come back home and there’s dad reading a newspaper, eating yogurt, listening to news on the radio and everything seems so small and poor.”

Davidson began his career as a film director with the 1971 musical, SHABLUL, and had his first big hit a year later in AZIT, THE PARATROOPER DOG. Throughout the decade he became the most successful film director in Israel. In 1978, Davidson partnered with producers Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus to make a film based on his teenage experience. None of them imagined that the result, a nostalgic, coming-of-age tale set in 1950’s Tel-Aviv, would become an international blockbuster and spawn seven sequels and an American remake.

LEMON POPSICLE (original title, ESKIMO LIMON) follows the misadventures and sexual capers of 3 high-school friends: Yiftach Katzur as the sensitive, film version of Davidson – Benzi, Jonathan Segal as the gigolo – Momo, and Zachi Noy as the heavy-set, Yudale.

Benzi falls in love with Nili, the new girl in school but she is in love with Momo, who snubs her when he finds out she is carrying his baby. In a moment of despair, Nili turns to Benzi to finance her abortion. Finally, he gets the girl. When all is said and done, Benzi finds Nili at a party, back in Momo’s arms. He walks out brokenhearted to the sound of Bobby Vinton crooning “Mr. Lonely”. The End.

“I felt like a criminal who goes back to the scene of the crime, we even used some of the real locations.” Davidson said about directing such intimate autobiographic moments. Despite the film’s comedic nature and provocative sexual content, melancholy and nostalgia dominate from the heartbreaking opening song, “Greenfields” by The Brothers Four to the unusual downbeat ending.

The Teenager has been a dominant character in the American film industry ever since the baby boom of the 1950s when Teensploitaiton bloomed (ie the BEACH PARTY franchise, ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK and other Sam Arkoff and Sam Katzmann shenanigans). In Israel however, characters used to represent various faces of the Zionist on the backdrop of the country’s political landscape and social hierarchy. LEMON POPSICLE was the first to break from that mold and offer a hedonistic point-of-view of Israel’s youth. It encountered accusations of pornography from various sources that didn’t like its glorification of the intruding American culture and indulgence in sexuality. That cultural clash between Israeli and American cultures creates an interesting time capsule. Rock ‘n’ Roll music gives the tone in the streets but the old generation rules the home.

Film historian, Shmulik Duvdevani, observes: “It documents the influence of popular American culture at the time, such as Elvis, etc. And on the other hand, in 1978 the Americanization of Israel was at a prime: hamburger joints push over the falafel stands, ‘American Ice Cream’ pushes the local products, the first mall was opened in 1978 – There was an attempt to copy American culture with brands and such. So LEMON POPSICLE has English opening titles and it’s no problem to dub it and because of that it’s a film that represents the Americanization Israel was going through in the 70’s as well.”

LEMON POPSICLE became an immediate hit, breaking every record set before it in Israel. 1,300,000 viewers flooded the theaters. At the time this meant 1 out of every 3 people in the country.

And then it screened at the MIFED International Film Market in Italy. Yoram Globus recalls, “It was the first time I attended MIFED. I’m screening my film and after 30 minutes people start walking out. In Israel it’s the biggest hit and here people are walking out??? I then realized they all ran to stand in line to buy the film for distribution – They were all afraid of someone else buying it first”.

EIS AM STIEL: THE POPSICLE IN GERMANY & BEYOND

From the program of the 1978 Berlin Film Festival

Jeanine Meerapfel, a filmmaker and member of the 1978 Berlinale selection committee: “I remember seeing it and having a lot of fun but thinking we can’t show it in the Berlinale – it’s too popular! I said that a film like that coming from Israel has to be shown because it was unexpected, you expect drama from Israel and here comes a light, well done comedy.”

Not only was LP the first Israeli film to be screened at the Berlinale competition in 5 years but the screening was a huge success and viewers voted it the 4th most popular in the festival. German producer, Sam Waynberg (REPULSION, CUL DE SAC), bought the distribution rights for Germany and signed the 3 lead actors to his company, thus insuring his involvement in future sequels. When it opened theatrically as EIS AM STIEL, it surpassed the success of the competing GREASE and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. A Golden Globe nomination followed and in 1979 and, when released in Japan, it became one of the most profitable films in theaters.

LEMON POPSICLE was also commercially distributed in Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Brazil, Korea, Thailand and more. It was not as successful in Italy, where the sex-comedy was a popular genre; it also failed to catch on in France, where it was titled JUKE BOX. In 1980, after the success of LA BOUM, starring Sophie Marceau, Golan and Globus re-titled the sequel to LP as LA BOUM AMERICAINE, but still to no success.

On the cover of 'Films and Filming', September 1978

In England the hype was exciting – A double spread pictorial in “Films and Filming” and an article about Zachi Noy in The Daily Express: WATCH OUT TRAVOLTA, A BIG, BIG, BIG ISRAELI STAR IN BORN. Noy’s response: “If Travolta is doing half as well as I am, then he is having a ball.”

LEMON POPSICLE filled a gap in German cinema by offering mainstream entertainment for teenagers in an art-house industry. Germany did have youth-oriented cinema in the past, inspired by the American Teensploitation movies of the 1950’s, they produced successful Rock-n-Roll musicals starring local musical teen-sensations such as Peter Kraus & Cornelia Froboess (WHEN CONNY AND PETER DO IT TOGETHER, EVERYBODY LOVES PETER).

Dr. Lothar Mikos, a professor at the Konrad Wolf Academy of Film & Television (HFF/B) in Potsdam: “Since then there was no teenage cinema in Germany. The German film industry collapsed more or less because of TV in the late 50′s and beginning of the 60′s. Other German directors proposed a new German cinema during 60’s-70’s, which was financed by government institutions. LEMON POPSICLE was popular since the new German cinema of the 60′s did intellectual films for young adults and no film dealing with emotion and sex and also comedy.”

Ironically, while many Germans who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s got their first peak of sexuality by watching a LEMON POPSICLE movie, many who grew up in Israel got theirs by watching the naughtier, German, SCHOOLGIRL REPORT series.
Dr. Andreas Raucher: “The SCHOOLGIRL series tried to be sold as documentaries, but later everybody knew it’s a bad excuse for a porn movie. LEMON POPSICLE was regarded as a teen sex comedy.”

Zachi Noy became the face on POPSICLE and a big star in Germany and Austria. His comedic talents and versatile use of his heavyset body proved a winning combination. Under the management of Sam Waynberg, he capitalized on his new status by appearing in a string of German comedies in theaters and on tv: POPCORN UND HIMBEEREIS (1978), ARABIAN NIGHTS (1980) and DIE UNGLAUBLICHEN ABENTEUER DES GURU JAKOB (1983) amongst others.

Demand called for it and in 1979, a sequel, GOING STEADY, was produced. The original crew was back and the sequel was very much in tone with its predecessor, almost a direct extension. GOING STEADY was a guaranteed international hit.

Continue reading…

'In LEMON POPSICLE they fooled around, now they are... GOING STEADY' - Israel

What a year 2007 has been for lovers of exploitation films! Following the theatrical release of GRINDHOUSE, multiple DVD labels started issuing sleazy double-features from the 60’s and 70’s, and while they don’t get the royal treatment companies like Blue-Underground or Synapse would give them, they are still great for those of us who don’t own a VHS player. In theaters we had the Tarantino / Rodriguez affair, Craig Brewer’s superb, BLACK SNAKE MOAN and Eli Roth’s HOSTEL: PART 2, that featured notable genre actors Edwige Fenech and Luc Meranda, and a moving cameo by legendary director, Ruggero Deodato (CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST). From a Spaghetti Western retrospective at the Venice Film Festival to various screenings hosted by Tarantino, Roth and Edgar Wright in LA, everybody wants a piece of the Exploitation pie – longing for the days when independent cinema was truly independent.

This surge of exploitation appreciation didn’t skip your bookshelf. Tim Lucas released his massive biography of Mario Bava (reviewed by Roy Frumkes in the Christmas Editorial), the Italian company, Cinedelic, published beautifully-made reference guides for Italian genre cinema, and the British FAB Press has been consistently putting out some of the best genre writings out there.

And here comes a treat to the Italian Exploitation enthusiast from FAB’s “Cinema Classics Collection”: Kier-La Janisse’s “A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi”.

“While countless books and magazines have been devoted to the female stars of the Italian exploitation films, commonly assessing their faces and figures more than their acting,” writes Kier-La Janisse in her introduction, “I have yet to encounter a book where a female fan of the genre appraises an actor in a similar fashion.” It is true that most studies of Italian Genre Cinema and the Exploitation industry are conducted by male writers, an unfortunate fact that Kier-La successfully counters. One could only wish her intro ran longer then 2-pages, as her personal point-of-view is one of the strong points of this book.

Luciano Rossi is an interesting subject as he is an obscurity within an obscurity. Although he is one of the most frequent faces in Spaghetti Westerns and Italian Crime cinema, Rossi never managed to reach stardom and usually portrayed a psychopath who meets a violent death at the hands of heroes like Django (Franco Nero) or Commissioner Betti (Maurizio Merli). It would be easy to dismiss Rossi at first, but once the viewer becomes aware of him, he is undeniable, always delivering an intense, powerful performance, even in the smallest of parts. Without a doubt, he is one of the most prolific actors of the Italian Exploitation cinema.

“A Violent Professional” is a survey of Rossi’s roles and films, offering a summery of each and a description of his character. His actual biography runs a short 4-pages and leaves a reader hungry for an in-depth look at his life and career, but that is not the goal of the publication. Not a “straight” read, “A Violent Professional” is a viewing companion, a reference guide. Kier-La has two rating systems for each film: A star-rating for how big Rossi’s role is and a heart-rating for how cute he is in it. Those personal touches give the book its edge.

Rossi’s career creates a collage, a remarkable landscape of Italian Exploitation cinema. He worked alongside the best Italy had to offer and also some of the worst. In the close-to-70 films covered in this book, a reader would find Western classics such as Sergio Corbucci’s DJANGO and obscure gems like Mario Lanfranchi’s DEATH SENTENCE. Seminal Crime-genre works by Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi and Stelvio Massi. A few great Giallos and a handful of other genres. With the exception of maybe Tomas Milian, very few Italian actors have a body of work that follows these genres from birth to disappearance. While the book may focus on Rossi, the nature of his career makes it a reflection of the Italian Exploitation industry as a whole.

“A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi” is not a primer or a beginner’s guide, and would be hard to recommend to those who are new to Italian genre cinema. But if you are a fan who wishes to explore these genres further, you’d want it mounted on your bookshelf.

A Violent Professional at FAB Press