Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine
November 15, 2002
United Artists etc.
Documentary
DVD
B

Written, directed, and starring Michael Moore, this documentary is not what it seems.  Like the book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man by Susan Faludi, it is as much about the literal and figurative journey to find answers to a complex question as it about the answers and the question.  Here the question begins with, "Why did the Columbine tragedy happen?" and then expands to raise questions about violence, fear, and racism, obviously overlapping categories.  The movie is often assumed to be anti-gun, but Moore is an NRA member and he points out that Canada is just as "gun-loving" as the US, but with much lower murder rates.

The movie is interesting and entertaining, if sometimes painful to watch.  It captures the way the late '90s led to the very early oughts.  My main complaint is that, while I recognize that this is propaganda, and doesn't really pretend not to be, the cards are very clearly stacked.  And not just with the issues.  Everyone that Moore dislikes, like Charlton Heston (coming off as even blinder than he did in Celluloid Closet, which is saying something), seems like an insensitive clod.  But everyone he likes is painted glowingly, himself most of all.  It is self-serving to show himself as either comforting the suffering or zinging the callous.  I understand that the persona of "Michael Moore" is a big part of his movies, but it is distracting.  I will probably revisit this issue when we look at Fahrenheit 9/11.  For now, I'll note that in a way that movie is a sequel to this one, in that the portions of this documentary set after September 11, 2001 obviously show where violence, fear, and racism can lead.

Chris Rock does a funny routine about bullets, showing how he could've been used more effectively in Dogma, making points without the heavy-handedness of that script.

Yentl

Yentl
January 6, 1984
United Artists
Comedy, Drama, Musical, Historical, Romance
DVD
B

This has obvious similarities to Zelig.  Not only were they released close together, but both titles are from the end of the alphabet.  (There's even a minor character here, the tailor's assistant, who's named Zelig.)  Both producers/writers/directors/stars (born six years apart and becoming famous at roughly the same time) explore identity, including Jewish identity, although Yentl is definitely more of a "Jewish" film in theme and setting.

The movie also has things in common with Tootsie.  Besides the cross-dressing plot and the resulting tangled romances, both movies star performers who are known for being difficult, and they parody themselves a bit.  More so in Tootsie, but the pushy, argumentative, talkative Barbra shows through in Yentl, or rather in her male alter ego Anshel.

As in Tootsie, the tangled romances don't untangle quite satisfactorily, more so here than in Tootsie.  When I saw this movie at 15, it was almost painful to watch, because I was attracted to both Barbra and Amy Irving,  (Not so much Mandy Patinkin, although he is cute, and he can definitely play a near-nude scene.)  When beautiful Amy Irving tried to kiss her "husband," that was both titillating and embarrassing for me as a closeted bisexual adolescent.  The friendship between Anshel and "his wife" Hadass moves from slumber-party to a not-quite-sisterhood, and Yentl recognizes she loves this other woman, although not romantically or sexually.

There's no good way to resolve the triangle, not in that time and place, however much I want the married couple to move to a new town, with Avigdor as their "roommate."  And Yentl recognizes that Avigdor will never fully accept the Anshel side of her.  In a way, it's right that he go back to a newly assertive (but still feminine) Hadass.  The problem is, because the story focuses on Yentl, we're left to fill in a lot of gaps, wondering how Avigdor told Hadass (Yentl writes her a note, but surely that's not enough), and how she reacted, and how Avigdor and Hadass were able to defy her parents.

It's a good movie: warm, sweet, funny, sad, with Barbra's lovely voice providing her own Greek chorus through songs that vary greatly in mood.  The film is definitely worth seeing despite the resolution.  It's based on "Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy" by Isaac Bashevis Singer, who hated the movie, particularly that Yentl sails to America.  But I accept that part because it's pure Barbra.  I just wish the script had given more thought to Hadass.

Nehemiah Persoff, who plays Yentl's wise, sweet papa, is almost unrecognizable a quarter century after his role as Little Bonaparte in Some Like It Hot.  Bernard Spear, who plays the tailor, was the second spy in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Peter Whitman, a yeshiva student here, would be Friborg in Morons from Outer Space.  Miriam Margolyes, who's Sarah here, would be Dr. Wallace there, although she may be best known as Professor Sprout in a couple of the Harry Potter movies.  Norma Atallah, who plays Debra here, would be Irini in Mamma Mia!  

Unspoken

Caveman

Caveman
April 17, 1981
United Artists
Comedy, Historical
VHS
B-

This silly comedy starring 40-year-old Ringo Starr as the title character has troubling sexual politics, so I want to address that before talking about what I like about the movie.  I know, it's about cavepeople and it parodies that prehistoric genre.  But the men are a diverse bunch that includes a midget, a gay couple, an old blind man (Jack Gilford), a black man, and an "Asian" man who speaks English and has a pet iguana.  There are only two women with memorable roles: busty brunette 33-year-old Barbara Bach as Lana the sexpot and leggy blonde 31-year-old Shelley Long as "nice girl" Tala.  The latter is willing to zug-zug and she's sneaky and vengeful, so she's not entirely "nice," but this is basically Veronica & Betty One Zillion B.C.  Starr as Atouk ultimately chooses Tala, but in real life he married Bach ten days after this movie was released, and they're still together.

As for our "nice guy" hero, he drugs Lana and her mate, macho Tonda, in order to literally sleep with her, and then later, with the help of his best pal (or bobo) Lar, played by 27-year-old Dennis Quaid, attempts to kidnap Lana!  Yes, Tonda and his tribe later kidnap all the women of the misfit tribe Atouk leads, but I think there should've been a greater moral distinction than this.  In fact, Atouk and his bobos invent weapons in order to conquer the physically stronger tribe.  And this is never addressed, even comedically.  In contrast, the two men who hold hands are accepted by Atouk and Lar with smiles, so it's not like the movie wasn't smart enough to put a spin on the treatment of women and violence in such movies.

That's the thing.  Although this movie has been described as brainless, and it's certainly a lot less intellectual than its contemporary Quest for Fire, it's clear some thought went into it, as seen in the way it's set specifically on October 9th (Starr's tribute to his recently slain former bandmate, as this was John Lennon's birthday).  Every dinosaur (or macha) is individualized (yes, more than the cavewomen), looking just real enough in stop-action animation but with touches like googly-eyes or a tendency to howl at the moon.  The primitive made-up language is simple and clear but flexible enough to cover every situation.  The Mexican scenery is stark but inviting.  And the trope of the caveperson or group inventing everything (played straight in the Clan of the Cave Bear, the book of which was released the previous year) is done well, especially the inventions of fried eggs and music.  The movie is sometimes funny and it's certainly watching once or twice (or more) but don't expect anything spectacular.

This time Avery Schreiber is Ock. Paco Morayta, who's Flok here, would shortly be Ramirez in Zorro: The Gay Blade.  Cowriter Rudy De Luca would also cowrite the equally silly Million Dollar Mystery.

Roadie

Roadie
June 13, 1980
United Artists
Comedy, Romance, Musical
VHS
C-

The general idea for this movie isn't bad: Meat Loaf (as Travis W. Redfish) has inherited his father Art Carney's mechanical aptitude (the Redfish house is full of all kinds of gizmos, like a moving phone booth) and thus becomes, despite his reluctance, the greatest roadie in the world.  Unfortunately, the movie is too meandering and there's a very annoying leading lady, Kaki Hunter as Lola Bouillabase.  Also, the various musicians aren't given much to do other than show up, although Deborah Harry has a moment when she's eating with Mr. Loaf that shows what the movie would've been like if she'd been the love interest.  (She'd have a more interesting role in Hairspray, much later in the decade.)  Another performer who makes a slight impression is Soul Train's Don Cornelius, as concert-promoter Mohammed Johnson, who late in the movie decides to try to become the first black President.  It's a throw-away line, without follow-up, like much of the movie, except for Lola's tedious plans to lose her virginity to a seemingly indifferent Alice Cooper.  The only musicians who redeem themselves are Cheap Trick, twice singing the song with the Redfish motto, "Everything Works If You Let It."

Alice Cooper's wife Sheryl appears as herself, and she was in Sgt. Pepper as a dancer.  Hank Williams, Jr. also appeared in that movie.  Lenore Woodward would play a little old lady again, in Hamburger-- The Motion Picture.  Richard Portnow, who's First New York Wino, would be Sy in Radio Days.  This time Hamilton Camp plays Grady.

Americathon

Americathon
August 10, 1979
United Artists
Comedy, Musical, Sci-Fi
VHS
B

My review of the "fotonovel" is here:
http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/11/americathon.html.  I'll add that the music really does make a difference, particularly the Beach Boys, "still together after 40 years," singing over the opening and closing credits.  I also think Monty's (Harvey Korman) answer to "My Way," which opens "My life, I'm loved and hated, yes, even envied because I'm gifted," is near perfect.  I still laughed out loud at the movie, during this umpteenth viewing, although not every joke works.  (There is an audible silence, like we're waiting for the laugh track, after the joke based on the picture below.)  The energy is sometimes off and the timeline makes no sense (Chet and Mouling disappear for days before they're kidnapped, and no one notices.)  Still, there are touches that I like, such as the surprisingly sweet (if not really) developed romance between Riegert's Eric and Chet's "old lady" (wife? girlfriend?) Lucy, played by Ritter's real life wife Nancy Morgan.  And any line about the ventriloquists is gold.

Peter Marshall plays a respected newsman and Chief Dan George the wealthy founder of NIKE, both nice bits of counter-casting.  Howard Hesseman is a sound-booth technician who often seems disgusted by what's being televised.  Meat Loaf is a daredevil who's so popular he comes back.  (Unlike the more dubious entertainers.)

Jerry Maren is still alive at 94, although he was in the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz and Little Professor Atom in At the Circus.  One of the musclemen, Dennis Tinerino, was Atlas in Hercules in New York, while Kal Szkalak was an athlete in Sextette.  May Boss, who plays Adele Miller (who boxes a young Jay Leno), was "Frail Old Lady" in Rabbit Test.  Rollin Moriyama and Mitsu Yashima, who pretend to be Chinese here, were the Japanese couple in the taxi in Foul Play.  (John Lone and Ben Fong Torres are part of their group of tourists.)

Selma Archerd, who's a "telethon phone celebrity" here, was a passenger in The Big Bus and would be Mrs. Williams in Can't Stop the Music.  Ventriloquist Jerry Layne would also be in Can't StM (and on Three's Company).  Fred Lerner, Commando #3, would be KAOS #2 in The Nude Bomb.  Gene LeBell, who plays the referee, was in I Wanna Hold Your Hand and would be in Going Ape!, while Sosimo Hernandez, who's Juan Flan here, would be "Flugist" in the latter movie.  I don't have the Del Rubio Triplets in any other movie, but I was delighted when they turned up on Married with Children as Peg's aunts.

Annie Hall

Annie Hall
April 20, 1977
United Artists
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B+

This is probably my favorite Woody Allen movie, but not because I saw it at the time.  I mean, I was 9, so I didn't get very many of the jokes then and most remembered it for the Snow White parody.  I started to appreciate it as a teenager, although I obviously get different things out of it now in middle age, having gone through the good and bad of so many romantic relationships.  It's easy to see why Annie Hall and Alvy Singer are drawn together and why they can't last, and it's interesting that this was made after Keaton and Allen broke up.

The script by Allen and Brickman is strong, with many quotable lines.  And the direction by Allen is equally good, with even the more unbelievable characters, like the one played by Shelley Duvall, believable within the world of the movie.  Although the movie is about Alvy & Annie, it also is about New York vs. California and a lot of other things.  I like that, like novelist George Meredith, Allen is able (at least at this point in his career and life) to include himself in his laundry list of what to mock.  Diane Keaton is absolutely lovable and charming here, but Annie has flaws of her own.

The supporting cast, only some of whom I've tagged, hold their own, including Goldblum with his one scene-stealing line.  Tony Roberts is much more relaxed here than he was in Star-Spangled Girl six years earlier, probably because the dialogue is so much better.  Carol Kane gives a fine early performance, as one of the women that illustrate Alvy's quote of the Groucho line about not wanting to belong to a club that would have him as a member.  Marshall McLuhan shows up as himself-- "If life were only like this!"-- and delivers a line that still cracks me up because it makes no sense yet is meant to be a put-down of a pseudo-intellectual: "You know nothing of my work!  You mean my whole fallacy is wrong."

There's a lot of fourth-wall-breaking, especially but not exclusively by Alvy.  One of the old ladies giving him advice on the street is seventy-six-year-old Paula Trueman, who would be Stick-Up Lady in Can't Stop the Music, as well as Woman on Telephone in Zelig, while another, sixty-nine-year-old Loretta Tupper, would be the music store owner in The Purple Rose of Cairo.  Another "street stranger" is Lou Picetti, who was the beauty pageant MC in Sleeper.  

One Lacey party guest, William Callaway, would be an intern in Rabbit Test.  Gary Muledeer, who's a man at the health food restaurant, would be Gary in The Gong Show Movie.  The two men who bother Alvy outside the theatre are Bob Maroff, who'd be a bartender in I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and Rick Petrucelli, who'd be a penny pitcher in Purple Rose.  "Coke fiend" John Doumanian would be a Greek waiter in Zelig and a Thanksgiving guest in Hannah and Her Sisters.  Hy Ansel, who's Joey Nichols, would play Mr. Waldbaum in Radio Days, which would feature Martin Rosenblatt, who's Alvy's uncle here, as Mr. Needleman.  One of the schoolteachers, Gary Allen, would be a board member in The Hudsucker Proxy.

Love and Death

Love and Death
June 10, 1975
United Artists
Comedy, Historical
VHS
C+

I remembered this film as funnier than I found it this time.  Some of the jokes fall flat, but oddly enough it's not bad as a pastiche of 19th-century Russian novels (with a few dashes of Ingmar Bergman).  I thought the best performance was given by Harold Gould, then 51, who was probably best known at the time for playing Rhoda Morgenstern's father on TV.  As in Sleeper, Woody and Diane plot an assassination, this time Napoleon's.

Norman Rose, who's the voice of Death, did an unidentified voice in Pinocchio in Outer Space and would be a radio voice in Radio Days.  (No, no one personifites Love.)

Sleeper

Sleeper
December 17, 1973
United Artists
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
B-

This is an uneven movie (based very loosely on Rip Van Winkle) in which ironically the most topical jokes-- Nixon, Cosell, Polaroid, McDonald's, etc.-- are actually the funniest, while the physical humor, except for the giant fruits, vegetables, and yes, chicken, only works for me because of the jazzy instrumentals.  The sci-fi elements though are I think mostly successful, especially the look of the movie, including the heavy use of white and black.  Diane Keaton, once her character shakes free of her pretentious, upper-class background, is a lot of fun, whether doing Tarzan swings or imitating Brando.  Woody Allen is playing his usual character, but the idea of placing him in this futuristic setting (where almost no one reacts to his jokes) is a good one.  I do have issues with the movie-- too much kidnapping! and stereotypes that don't redeem themselves by being actually funny-- but overall, I recommend it.

George Furth, who was Howie in The Cool Ones, is one of Luna's party guests.  Lou Picetti, who's the Miss America M.C., would be one of the strangers Alvy questions on the street in Annie Hall.  Peter Hobbs, who plays Dr. Dean, would also be a doctor in Nine to Five.  Whitney Rydbeck, who plays the robot Janus, would be the auctioneer in A Very Brady Sequel.

Clambake

Clambake
December 4, 1967
United Artists
Musical, Comedy, Romance
VHS
C+

I'd put this on a level with Girl Happy, which was also set in Florida and had Elvis romancing Shelley Fabares.  Here she has very dark hair, which is as odd as Bill Bixby being blond, although he plays his usual playboy.  Both Elvis's and Bill's characters are rich, but Elvis has switched identities with Will Hutchins in order to see if he can get a girl who doesn't care about money.  So he romances Shelley, who's playing a gold-digger.  Well, logic is never a strong point in Elvis movies.  The music, when it's not too silly ("Claaaambake, gonna have a clambake!"), is pretty good, especially Elvis's rendition of the oft covered "You Don't Know Me."  But the movie is most interesting for its cast, including Gary Merrill looking out of place but making the best of things.

Yes, that's Hal "mmmyes" Peary as the doorman, but I think this is the only one of his movies I have.  Christopher Riordan plays "a beach boy," as he did at AIP.  Lee Krieger, who's the bartender, was in Beach Ball.  Suzie Kaye, as Sally, isn't given much to do compared to her role as Deborah Walley's friend in It's a Bikini World.  This time, Elvis's friend Red West plays the Ice Cream Vendor.  Elvis's other friend Joe Esposito has a bit part.  Teri Garr supposedly is in this, but I couldn't spot her.  (I also failed to recognize Corbin Bernsen as one of the kids at the playground.)

Charlie Hodge, who plays Mr. Hayward's barber, would be a guitarist in Speedway.  Arlene Charles, who had a bit role in Spinout and plays Olive here, would also show up in Speedway.  Dal McKennon, who plays the Bearded Gas Station Attendant, would be the Old Soldier in Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady?  Angelique Pettyjohn, who plays Gloria, was in The Cool Ones and would be in Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? Robert P. Lieb, Mr. Barasch here, would be Rayfield in The Love God?*  The LG? would also have New-York-born James Gregory (probably best known for his appearances on Barney Miller), who's never quite convincing here as Elvis's Texan daddy.


*If you're noticing an increasing tendency towards titles that are long and/or questions as the '60s go on, you're correct, but I'll talk about that when we get to '68.

Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!
June 8, 1966
United Artists
Comedy
VHS
C+

This time around Bob isn't so much worried about his children's potential sex lives (since they're younger than Tuesday was in I'll Take Sweden, and they're more interested in onscreen than real-life sexiness).  Instead, Phyllis Diller, as Hope's wacky maid, is worried about Bob's possible adultery with Elke Sommer as a French [sic] bathing beauty.  Diller of course steals most of the scenes she's in, especially when she's rocking out in the kitchen to a song that has lyrics like "Murder me with kisses," or tearing down the (allegedly rural Oregonian) roadway on her motorcycle.  Hope actually has more scenes with her, due to the plot twists, than he does with his wife, played by Marjorie Lord in a towering bouffant that has dated far worse than Phyllis's sort of proto-new-wave egg-beatered look.  Speaking of being dated, if you ever wanted to hear Bob Hope say, "I've got more fuzz on my tail than a French poodle," this is the film for you.  I'd go with a B-, like I'll Take Sweden, but I don't like the way that Sommer is treated onscreen.  Yes, her character is immature, but she does go through mistreatment, from getting exploited and lied to by her fiance/director (Cesare Danova) to getting locked in a spider-filled cellar, and we're just supposed to laugh and think she deserves it.

Joyce Jameson, who as the telephone operator is sort of responsible for the title situation, was "The Blonde" in The Apartment.  (I think the one who sounded like Marilyn Monroe.)  Arthur Tovey, who had a bit part in Dear Brigitte, is an onlooker at the soap factory and would work his way up to Hotel Guest in The Graduate.  Norman Leavitt, who's Titus Zeale, Gas Station Proprietor, would be Herbert the Ice Cream Vendor in The Swinger.  Keith Taylor, who plays Plympton, would be Henry in The Perils of Pauline (1967).



This completes the first 100 of my movies I've reviewed.  The breakdown on grades is 1 A, 3 A-s, 9 B+s, 12 B's, 26 B-s, 29 C+s, 10 C's, 8 C-s, 1 D+, and 1 D-.  Given my tastes, Comedy is the most popular of the overlapping genres, 82%.  Groucho Marx has more appearances than anyone, 14, and he's not quite finished.  Paramount is the most popular studio, with 18% of the movies, although this is less the case for the '50s and '60s than for earlier.

Help!

Help!
August 25, 1965
United Artists
Comedy, Musical, Action
VHS
C

Although it's nice to see the Beatles in colour-- including in a prescient scene where they wear facial hair for disguises and look like their future selves (except Paul)-- there's no question that this isn't as good as A Hard Day's Night.  Instead of giving us a slightly surreal view of a day-in-the-life-of-the-band, we instead get a nonsensical yet boring plot involving two sets of bad guys-- worshipers of the goddess Kali, and a mad scientist and his idiot assistant-- all of whom are after a ring on Ringo's finger.  (George gets a later ironic line about not wanting to criticise anyone's religion.)  The music is good of course (including sitars that would influence George) but there's not much of it and it's not shot anywhere near as creatively as in HDN.  I also don't like how John and Paul want to cut off Ringo's finger when the ring won't come off.  There are some nice touches, like the design of the lads' house, but I'd rather watch an average episode of The Monkees than this.

A few of the Hard Day's Night cast show up: Bob Godfrey, who was Man in Park, is a priest/thug here; Jeremy Lloyd, who was Tall Dancer at the Disco, gets a couple lines as a restaurant patron; and of course Victor Spinetti, the TV director, becomes mad scientist Foot.  Roy Kinnear, who's Foot's assistant Algernon, would be Veruca Salt's dad in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

I'll Take Sweden

I'll Take Sweden
June 18, 1965
United Artists
Comedy, Musical, Romance
VHS
B-

If it's Tuesday, this must be Sweden.  Or maybe Big Bear.  In Hope & Weld's answer to Take Her, She's Mine, we have to take the mountains of California for the mountains of Sweden.  Somehow that seems appropriate in this movie that is on the surface much less topical than THSM, yet underneath shows the tensions of the growing generation gap.  Sandra Dee as a college student was interested in protest, but Weld (as Jojo) just cares about the Watusi and her unemployed musician boyfriend Kenny (Frankie Avalon).  Hope (as Bob Holcomb, a very Danza name) lies and schemes to separate the two of them when marriage is a possibility, but he later decides that a wholesome American boy like Kenny is a better bet than the "Scandinavian Svengali" who tries to seduce Jojo.  Although the movie is as L7 as Bob H., it does address the double standard, especially when Bob falls for a Swede of his own (Dina Merrill, not Swedish).  There are at least three lines that show that the worry is not only that Jojo will lose her virginity out of wedlock, but that she'll become an unwed mother.  The irony of this will be great when we get to Hope's How to Commit Marriage, but that will be four years later, in a decade of change too fast for mainstream movies like this to keep up with.

The movie is sometimes intentionally funny, if in a corny way.  ("I can't sleep at night."  "You should talk to my doctor.  He can't sleep either.")  There's a third-rate, secondhand Marx Brothers connection, since director Nat Perrin wrote The Big Store.  And Bob Fisher and Arthur (son of Groucho) Marx would also cowrite Hope's Cancel My Reservation.  (Seven years from this movie, and definitely showing weariness with changing times.)

I'll note that Frankie sings three songs in this one, but doesn't seem to be breaking completely free of his AIP image.  (Bob calls him "a poor Beatle.")  Frankie's work here did have an impact on our next movie, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, but I'll get to that in its place.

John Qualen, who's Olaf here, was Berger in Casablanca.  This is the last of my movies with Bert Stevens (he died the previous December); here he's a bistro patron, and he was in Citizen Kane among many others.  Hotel guest Jack Shea was a police officer in Palm Springs Weekend.  Rosemarie Frankland, here Marti, was a showgirl in A Hard Day's Night.  Christopher Riordan, a student here, would join the AIP Beach Party crowd shortly.  Beverly Hills (yes, you read that right) plays Electra here and would be Mary Ann in Speedway.

A Hard Day's Night

A Hard Day's Night
July 8, 1964
United Artists
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B

Released at the height of Beatlemania, this is a G-rated but mischievous version of the Beatles' lives.  (There are moments when Lennon in particular seems to be undercutting their then squeaky clean image, as when he leers at girls or sniffs Coca-Cola.)  It of course has a soundtrack full of their songs, although a bit too heavy on the ballad side for my taste.  The humour is mostly very dry, with slapstick here and there.  The Beatles come across as likable and charming.  The supporting players unfortunately, with the exception of too young (52) but otherwise just right Wilfrid Brambell, aren't much support.  I do like spotting Pattie Boyd (later ex-wife to George and then Eric Clapton) in her scenes on the train, but she isn't given any lines.  Oh, and the stuffy guy in their compartment is fun, because he's the perfect foil for the lads, especially when they run and bicycle alongside the train.  And there's of course a certain irony that the Beatles would all soon be extremely wealthy, and one of them eventually "Sir Paul."

I've seen the movie several times (the first time in the dress I'd later get married in), and it still feels fresh, thanks partly to the pseudo-documentary style that Richard Lester directs in, especially in the scene where the Beatles goof around in the field.  I don't think it's a great film but it's still, at pushing 50, an undeniably good one.  And, yes, Beatles aside, it captures its time, like the way that the girl who sobs George's name dresses as Barbra Streisand did then, or how Shake and the Beatles like to read MAD Magazine.  Some things don't feel dated, like the packaged TV teen star.  But yeah, I can't watch it now without thinking of what came after, how obsessed fans and arrest-happy police would no longer seem funny to the Beatles a few years later.  Even in '64, things weren't that innocent, but it was still possible to pretend.

Jeremy Lloyd, who's "Tall Dancer at the Disco," would have another bit part in Help!, while "Car Thief" John Bluthal would play Bhuta.  Rosemarie Frankland, who's a showgirl here, would be Marti in I'll Take Sweden.  Phil Collins (yes, that Phil Collins) is "Seated Fan with Necktie" and would be a Vulgarian child in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Anna Quayle, who's Millie here, would be Baroness Bomburst there.

The Apartment

The Apartment
June 15, 1960
United Artists
Comedy, Drama, Romance
DVD
B+

Although this has big stars, won five Oscars-- best picture, director, original screenplay, film editing, and set direction-- and has received critical acclaim, then and now, it feels like an obscure little picture.  I don't mean that as an insult.  It's just that Wilder's use of black & white here, and the feel of a stageplay (much of the film is indeed set in the title location, and the cast is relatively small), as well as the intimate, human tone, suggest a low-budget gem.  Yet there are those big stars, and the workplace is huge, with the floor that C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) works on seeming to stretch into infinity.  There's another contradiction in the way the genres clash with each other, the comedy, drama, and romance not blending so much as fighting.  This works much better than it did in Wilder's Sabrina, in part because the central romantic triangle is so much better cast.

Lemmon's Baxter has some of the sweetness and "getting-tookness" of Jerry in Some Like It Hot.  But there's also an unsavory undertone, with him loaning his apartment to executives in his company.  Rock Hunter at least had some fun pretending to romance a movie star in order to achieve success, including that key to the executive washroom.  (Here there's also an unseen executive dining room.)  All Baxter gets at first is a cold.  Mostly, he's pushed around by those four executives, including such familiar faces as Mame's Mr. Upson (Willard Waterman), Bewitched's Larry Tate (David White), and My Favorite Martian (Ray Walston).  (The other exec, David Lewis, would go on to John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!)  When Baxter gets to sit at home for a change, he can't even enjoy himself, because (despite a then-cutting-edge channel-changer) there's nothing on TV but westerns and commercials.

This was an early yet transitional movie for Shirley MacLaine, as Fran Kubelik.  She is amazing in it, even though she's giving probably the most understated performance.  Fran makes mistakes, and knows it, but keeps making them, until she finally has her epiphany in the end.  Her chemistry with Lemmon is just right, as is her reply to his declaration of love.

Then there's Fred MacMurray as J.D. Sheldrake.  This was right around the time MacMurray was making Disney movies, and he would soon be the father of "his three sons" on TV.  At first it's strange to see him play such a sleazeball, but it works, because he does have that bland, pleasant surface.  You can believe he's fooled everyone.  It's almost a throwaway, but I like how one of his preteen sons wants to put two flies on a toy rocket and see if they'll "propagate."  Sheldrake shows as much discomfort as he does with other matters that shouldn't be talked about, like adultery and suicide.  It's not that he's prim and proper; it's that he doesn't like to take responsibility.

You can see how much the Code had crumbled in the seven years since The Moon Is Blue.  Then it was a big deal that a virgin went to a bachelor's apartment, took money from an older man with "no strings attached," and came out of the experience with two marriage proposals.  Here, when Sheldrake gives Fran $100 for Christmas, he does it because he's too uncaring to take the time to buy her a present.  She sees it as him calling her a whore, although this isn't said aloud, just through MacLaine's performance.

The movie is also interesting to contrast with its contemporary, Please Don't Eat the Daisies.  There, a blonde bimbo tells a married man (played by Moon Is Blue's David Niven) that she's on the make for him, but he doesn't succumb, even when he's living in a hotel.  Here there's lots of adultery, including almost Baxter's with the wife of a jockey imprisoned by Castro for non-political reasons.  (And one blonde bimbo is compared to Marilyn Monroe, a forgivable cruelty on Wilder's part, considering the hell Marilyn put everybody through on Some Like It Hot.)  The cheating men always make sure to make the train from New York City back to the suburbs, while Niven's character missed trains while keeping vows.

In Daisies, there are some black extras at Macy's, presented as equals to Doris Day.  Here I think there's only a "shoeshine boy," whom Sheldrake gives a small tip.  More memorably, there are three significant Jewish characters: Baxter's landlady and his neighbors the Dreyfusses.  They speak stereotypically, but believably, as Jewish New Yorkers of their time and generation (roughly 50s).  They are also the heart and soul of the movie, the most decent people, even when they're scolding Baxter, whom they think is a love-'em-and-leave-'em playboy, because of what they overhear from his apartment.  Jack Kruschen as Dr. Dreyfuss is quite good at going back and forth between the comedy and drama, and he, along with Lemmon and MacLaine, was nominated by the Academy, although none of them won.  (Kruschen played French in Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation.)

Comparing this briefly to my other Billy Wilder movies:

• Fran's suicide attempt is much more realistic and heart-wrenching than Norma Desmond's in Sunset Blvd., because she's a much more sympathetic character, and she's not manipulative, but manipulated. 
• The business world is presented much less sympathetically than in Sabrina, where we're supposed to believe that Linus Larrabee will somehow be able to balance love and success, despite being a workaholic.  (The bowler hat is a very different symbol in that movie.)
• Both Some Like It Hot and this movie have sequences that alternate between two "dates," with Lemmon's dates played entirely for laughs, while Junior & Sugar's rendezvous has heat as well as humor, but Sheldrake & Fran's is dramatic with moments of dark wit.

Joe Palma and Joan Shawlee were in Some Like It Hot, she as Sweet Sue.  One of the office workers, Dorothy Abbott, was a showgirl in There's No Business Like Show Business, and would be a radio operator in Palm Springs Weekend.  Hal Smith, who's a drunk Santa here (he's best known as Otis on The Andy Griffith Show), would be Santa and a ranger in Santa and the Three Bears.

Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot
March 29, 1959
United Artists
Comedy, Historical, Musical, Romance
DVD
A

Probably my all-time favorite movie (as well as the top comedy on the AFI list), this is hilarious, clever, sexy, warm, sweet, romantic, cynical, dark, light, wise, silly, gay-friendly, and remarkably well-timed.  That last quality really struck me on this viewing, how not just the wisecracks but everything, from sound effects to exits and entrances, is Swiss-watch-like.  The script by Wilder and Diamond is top-notch, from running jokes like "Type O" to plot twists to its justly famous curtain line to double entendres .  (This time I caught "cherry tarts.")  The three leads were probably never better than they are here: Curtis, playing "heel" Joe, prissy Josephine, and Cary-Grantesque Shell Oil Jr.; Lemmon as insecure Jerry and unsinkable Daphne; and Monroe, still lighting up the screen as she did at the beginning of the decade in All About Eve, here more vulnerable but also more fun-loving as Sugar Kane.  They're well-supported by the rest of the cast, especially the veterans, with "satchel-mouthed" Joe E. Brown priceless as Lemmon's suitor.  Although the film is not a musical per se, it does use music very effectively, not just the jazzy background themes and incidental music, but Marilyn's three very different songs.  (Needless to say, far more memorable than poor Jayne Mansfield's ditties in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw.)  The costumes, Marilyn's especially, are just right, and the movie is definitely an argument for the beauty of black & white.  (In fact, on their anti-Colorization program, Siskel & Ebert showed a clip of Marilyn teasing and being teased by the shadows and lights during "I Wanna Be Loved by You.")  The comparisons to the farce of the Marx Brothers don't seem overblown, and in fact there's a great improvement on the "crowded compartment" scene of A Night at the Opera.

So why not an A+?  Well, I could say something about perfection, but I think it's that the gangster plot doesn't quite work.  Don't get me wrong.  It provides some great moments, especially when George Raft (Spats) and Pat O'Brien face off, or when we see how stupid and crude Spats's henchmen are, and it doesn't bring the movie too far down, as the gangsters do in The Girl Can't Help It.  But when the mob, or rather mobs, show up in the last half hour of the movie, it takes away some of the sunny bubbliness of the Florida setting.  Still, the two wrong-for-each-other-yet-so-right couples manage to go off into the horizon, on their way to a yacht, and there is that lovely end-line.

Tom Kennedy (not the game show host), who plays a bouncer here, was in the Marxes' Monkey Business.  Jack Gordon was in It's a Wonderful Life.  Carl Sklover was in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars.  Billy Wayne was in The Girl Can't Help It.  Bert Stevens was in Citizen Kane and Auntie Mame, the latter with Arthur Tovey.

Joe Palma and Joan Shawlee (Sweet Sue) would be in The Apartment.  Tiger Joe Marsh would do Beware! The Blob.  Dave Barry (not that Dave Barry), who is Beinstock here, would be in Spinout.  Mike Mazurki, one of Spats's more memorable henchmen, would appear in The Magic of Lassie.  George Raft would play himself in Sextette, while Tony Curtis would chew a lot of scenery as one of the many ex-husbands (the Russian one) of Mae West's character.  Nehemiah Persoff, who's Little Bonaparte, would have a completely different role as Yentl's papa in the Streisand movie.

The Moon Is Blue

The Moon Is Blue
July 8, 1953
United Artists
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B-

This movie was controversial six decades ago, for what we would now call "adult themes and language," although my guess is it'd get a PG if released today.  At the time, Otto Preminger couldn't get it approved by the Code and released it anyway, which was the very beginning of the end for the Code.  (The movie did fine at the box office.)  Watching it now, it's mildly amusing but not particularly shocking.  I was more offended by the lines that joke about violence towards women, but I think we're meant to be offended.  The view of television-- "We're years away from color!"-- is about as dated as the view of sex.  David Niven plays the middle-aged scoundrel, William Holden the young scroundel.  Gregory Ratoff (Max Fabian in All About Eve) has a small role as a taxi driver.

Copacabana

Copacabana
May 30, 1947
United Artists
Comedy, Musical
VHS
B-

This is Groucho's most entertaining movie in a dozen years, although he's not the funniest person in it.  No, it's not Carmen Miranda, although she has her moments.  No, the one who made me laugh the hardest was "Andy Russell, the voice of romance."  Like many people in the movie, he's playing a version of himself, but he's so damn goofy that I don't see how he could ever have been taken seriously as a crooner.  Both Groucho and Carmen have dual roles, she as "Carmen" and the nonexistent "Mademoiselle Fifi."  (When he says there's no woman in the world like Fifi, I thought of Capt. Tuttle on M*A*S*H.)  Groucho mostly plays Lionel Q. Deveraux (the Q stands for his father's love of pool), but he also shows up in the old greasepaint and frock coat, as a rising young talent, to sing "Go West, Young Man," a Kalmar & Ruby ditty that I assume was written for Go West and left out for some reason.  The Medved brothers picked Groucho & Carmen as one of the worst screen couples ever, but I think they're sort of cute together, even if she smooches three or four other guys rather than him, and he spends a lot of time hitting on other women, all of whom sass him.  One of them, the cigarette girl, was played by Kay Gorcey, who was then married to Groucho.  (She was Leo Gorcey's ex.)

There's also a subplot that Groucho remarks is about either the boss in love with the secretary or the secretary in love with the boss.  It seems to be the latter, with Gloria Jean as the secretary, six years after she played W. C. Fields's niece "Gloria Jean" in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.  She, on Andy's advice, tries to serenade her boss, but like George in It's a Wonderful Life when Mary tries to sing to him, he thinks she's not feeling well.  It turns out that he's crazy about "a little chick who likes Andy."  All the confusion, including the "murder of Fifi," is untangled in the end, and the Hollywood agent thinks it would make a great picture, so we end with a mini-film within a film.  Well, maybe not a great picture, but give it a chance.

William H. O'Brien was in A Night at the Opera.  Bert Stevens was in Citizen Kane.  Dick Elliott, who plays the hotel manager, was the man on the porch in It's a Wonderful Life, the one who says, "Youth is wasted on the wrong people."  Cy Schindell was a bouncer in Wonderful Life as well as this movie.  Kenner G. Kemp and Dee Turnell would go on to Singin' in the Rain, Mari Blanchard to Abbott and Costello Go to Mars.  Columnist Earl Wilson would also play himself in two of my '60s movies, Beach Blanket Bingo and Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

A Night in Casablanca

A Night in Casablanca
October 12, 1946
United Artists
Comedy, Musical
VHS
C

The Marx Brothers "retired" after The Big Store, and who could blame them?  This was their post-war comeback movie, but it's not any better than Store.  Then again, it's not any worse.  They're Dumont-less this time, although they do have Sig Ruman again, much more villainous than he was in A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.  (As in Store, the serious plot involves a string of murders.)  The movie isn't really a parody on Casablanca, although the Nazis are causing trouble here, too.  The Marxes, especially Harpo (playing "Rusty," as he did in Go West), look old and tired.  (They were then in their mid to late 50s.)  The jokes are mostly old and tired, too, although there are moments I smiled a little, as when Harpo indeed is "holding up a wall."  This wasn't quite the end for the comedy team, but I haven't seen Love Happy in about thirty years, so I can't tell you if it's any worse.  I have Groucho coming up in 1947's Copacabana and 1968's Skidoo.

Mary Dees was in The Women.  Philip Van Zandt was in Citizen Kane.  And Dan Seymour was in Casablanca.  Kalmar & Ruby's "Who's Sorry Now" (from 1923) is sung by the villainess, a whole night club, and then Groucho.

Turnabout

Turnabout
May 17, 1940
United Artists
Comedy, Fantasy
VHS
C+

Unlike most later body-switch comedies, this one also involves a gender swap, between a bickering married couple, the Willowses (John Hubbard and Carole Landis), with the assistance of their talking genie statue, Mr. Ram.  There's also a lumbering Great Dane, a bear cub, an advertising agency that uses surfboards, and the toughest-to-kill radio since Duck Soup.  Among the confused servants, business partners, and potential clients are Donald Meek, Marjorie Main, Adolphe Menjou (top billing), Mary Astor as his wife, and Franklin Pangborn as Mr. Pingboom.  Director Hal Roach's daughter plays a southern belle secretary with the biggest hat bow since probably 1910.

Unfortunately, in a different way than My Little Chickadee, the movie is never as much fun as it could be.  It is interesting though and, yes, there are moments of queer subtext, as when the wife is in the husband's body (still with her own voice) and befriends Mr. Pingboom.  As with the '50s sitcom plots of the husband and wife swapping chores for a day, the message is that the sexes are and should remain very different, although since the Willowses are upper-middle-class, Sally Willows and her friends are more like the women in The Women than like Lucy and Ethel.  But then, just when you think that order is restored, the movie delivers a surprisingly daring ending.  Pity the rest of the script wasn't that sharp.  It's based on a 1931 book by Thorne Smith (of Topper fame), which became a 1979 sitcom, with Sharon Gless!  She obviously went on to better things, but sadly Carole Landis committed suicide in 1948, due to boyfriend Rex Harrison refusing to divorce his wife.

Jack Rice was in Flying Down to Rio.  Carl M. Leviness was in At the Circus.  Jack Egan and William H. O'Brien would go on to Citizen Kane, George[s] Renavent (Mr. Ram) to Road to Zanzibar, and Kenner G. Kemp to Singin' in the Rain.  Buddy Messinger, who's an elevator boy here, would be one in Andy Hardy Meets Debutante and The Big Store, along with a bunch of movies I don't own.  (Talk about typecasting!)