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A
WORD about the name of this column: In
1983, my friend Frank Thompson, prolific
author-historian-filmmaker, proposed a
book about underknown directors. Scott
MacQueen wrote comprehensively about Roland
West (The Bat Whispers); John
Tibbetts, editor of the late lamented
American Classic Screen , contributed
an essay on Rowland Brown, who wrote and
directed three brilliant and neglected
early ‘30s crime pictures (Quick Millions,
Hell's Highway, Blood Money);
the late legendary historian, author,
educator and archivist William K. Everson
(longtime NBR member and namesake of the
annual NBR Everson Film History Award)
did a detailed study of William K. Howard
(The Power and the Glory);
I penned a monograph about Victor Fleming,
best known as director of The Wizard
of Oz and Gone with the Wind
but seldom mentioned for more personal
works like The Virginian, Red Dust,
Bombshell, and Captains Courageous;
and Frank himself authored a personal
and fascinating look at Charles Barton,
who started as assistant director to the
likes of William Wellman and Cecil B.
DeMille and went on to become one of our
greatest comedy directors (The Time
of their Lives, Abbott and Costello Meets
Frankenstein).
Frank
Thompson has authored a dozen outstanding
books, including the first full-length
volumes on William Wellman and Robert
Wise, the DGA's Oral History of Henry
King, Lost Films, a study of the
Star Ranch silent film factory in Texas,
the lavish Nightmare Before Christmas
coffee table book, and Alamo Movies
. His latest release covers the new
feature film production of The Alamo
(he's one of the great authorities on
both the siege and its many depictions
on film). Frank edited the book on the
five underknown directors, and Scarecrow
Press published it in 1985 under the title
Between Action and Cut.
Francois
Truffaut inspired the title when he observed,
“Before shooting a scene, the director
yells Action! When the scene is
finished he calls Cut! All the secrets
of the cinema lie there, in what happens
in the mind of the director between action
and cut.”
So,
in appreciation of my friend Frank Thompson
(look for his books on Amazon and Ebay
… and the new Alamo book in stores) and
in tribute to Francois Truffaut (see the
February edition of this column for my
interview with M. Truffaut), I call this
column “Between Action and Cut.”
JOHN
CASSAVETES: Cineastes and filmmakers revere
John Cassavetes (1929-1989) for his pioneering
independent films (Shadows, Faces,
Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, Killing
of a Chinese Bookie, Opening
Night, and Loves Streams).
He was also a tremendous actor,
as witness his Oscar-nominated role as
Franco in The Dirty Dozen and
his evil and ambitious husband in Rosemary's
Baby.
Cassavetes
put together his seminal indie improv
film Shadows (1958-1960) out
of his Manhattan acting workshop. To help
finance completion, he accepted the lead
role in an NBC-TV series, Johnny Staccato.
For years it has been available in only
poor dupes, but we have cause to rejoice
now that Trio (Universal's cable TV pop
culture channel) has resurrected the series
under their “Brilliant But Cancelled”
banner.
Cassavetes
plays the title character, a Greenwich
Village jazz pianist who moonlights as
a private eye. He headquarters at Waldo's,
a Village jazz joint; the eponymous owner
is played by Eduardo Ciannelli (the Mad
Guru of Gunga Din).
The
show debuted on NBC on September 10, 1959,
in the Thursday night 8:30-9:00 PM time
slot opposite The Real McCoys
and Johnny Ringo. After 27 episodes,
the show was cancelled, but in March 1960,
ABC began airing reruns on Sunday nights
from 10:30-11:00 PM opposite What's
My Line and This is Your Life.
Staccato
sounds like campy late Fifties kitsch,
right? Wrong. The reason?
John
Cassavetes.
Marvel
at his unique and quirky acting choices,
by turns subtly nuanced and explosively
energetic. While interiors were shot at
Universal City Studios, there was a great
deal of Manhattan location filming, so
we get marvelous glimpses 1959 New York
City, from Grand Central Station to the
Village. The show benefits further from
the gritty camerawork of Lionel Lindon,
who had won an Oscar a few years earlier
for Around the World in 80
Days, and who went on to lens Too
Late Blues, for Cassavetes, and The
Young Savages, All Fall Down,
The Manchurian Candidate,
Grand Prix, and The Extraordinary
Seaman for John Frankenheimer.
The
show's directors included Bernard Girard,
Joseph Pevney, Richard Whorf, and Boris
Sagal (all top-notch TV directors of the
era). Cassavetes himself directed five
episodes – “Murder for Credit,”
“Evil,” “Solomon,” “Piece of Paradise,”
and “Night of Jeopardy.”
The
music makes the program special as well,
with the jazz of the Pete Candoli combo
used as both score and source music. The
combo included Shelly Manne, Red Norvo,
Barney Kessel, Red Mitchell, and, on piano,
Johnny (later John) Williams, a decade
and a half before his work with Spielberg
and Lucas. Among the guest stars on the
series: Mary Tyler Moore, Michael Landon,
Martin Landau, Dean Stockwell, Shirley
Knight, Harry Guardino, Elizabeth Montgomery,
Cloris Leachman, and in one of the best
episodes, “Fly, Baby, Fly!”, Gena Rowlands,
Mrs. John Cassavetes.
When
the NBR gave the Career Achievement Award
to Ms. Rowlands, I was fortunate to interview
her. She told me that she and Cassavetes
referred to the Universal TV studios as
“the bank;” whenever they need to finance
one of their own movies, they took turns
doing TV shows for the prolific production
house. Stay tuned to this column for the
complete interview with Gena Rowlands.
Trio
is running Johnny Staccato through
at least the end of May. For complete
schedule, go to www.triotv.com
and search for Staccato.
Here's a great opportunity to see some
of the earliest acting and directing of
one of our best and brightest filmmakers.
And like everything John Cassavetes did,
JOHNNY Staccato was years ahead of its
time.
TV
DAYS: And speaking of vintage TV check
out Ira Gallen's website www.tvdays.com
. He offers quality videos of many
vintage TV series, including musical comedy
specials with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis,
Frank Sinatra, Abbott and Costello, Jack
Benny and Eddie Cantor, and shows like
Love That Bob with Robert Cummings,
The Beachcomber with Cameron
Mitchell, many Westerns and game shows,
and dozens of classic TV commercials.
The
Dresser :
In 1983, the NBR named Peter Yates' The
Dresser as one of the top ten
films of the year. Columbia TriStar Home
Video has just released a pristine DVD
and it's well worth revisiting. Albert
Finney plays “Sir,” the domineering star
and leader of a British theatrical troupe
embarking on his 227 th performance of
King Lear. Yates and screenwriter and
Ronald Harwood chart his disintegration
through his relationship with his dresser,
Norman (Tom Courtenay). The Dresser
won Oscar nominations for Best Picture
and for Finney, Courtenay, Yates and Harwood.
TCM:
The greatest movie channel ever created,
Turner Classic Movies continues to give
us the best of vintage cinema. In April,
TCM premieres a new documentary on Cecil
B. DeMille, directed, thankfully, by Kevin
Brownlow, perhaps the world's leading
film scholar, and the man responsible
for some of the best film-on-film documentaries
ever made – The Unknown Chaplin
and Hollywood: The Pioneers to
name but two. TCM is devoting April 5
th and April 7 th to DeMille, airing the
Brownlow documentary along with the DeMille
films The Squaw Man (1914),
The Cheat (1915), The Affairs
of Anatol (1921), The King of
Kings (1927), Dynamite (1929),
Madam Satan, his 1931 remake
of The Squaw Man, The Sign
of the Cross (1932) and The Crusades
(1935). Go to www.turnerclassicmovies.com
for times.
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