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When
the Oscars are announced on February 27,
will Martin Scorsese be getting his overdue
Academy Award? He's long been considered
our greatest living director, and his
influence on subsequent filmmakers is
indisputable. He's a tireless film preservationist
and a fixture in film history documentaries.
Martin
Scorsese has been honored with the AFI
Lifetime Achievement Award (1997), and
the Directors Guild of America Lifetime
Achievement Award (2003), as well as by
the Cannes Film Festival (the Golden Palm
for TAXI DRIVER, Best Director for AFTER
HOURS), Italy's David di Donatello Awards
(1991), France's Cesar Awards, the Film
Society of Lincoln Center (1998), the
American Cinematheque (1991), the American
Society of Cinematographers (1995), the
Golden Globes (Best Director for GANGS
OF NEW YORK) and three times by the National
Board of Review, for Best Director (AGE
OF INNOCENCE) in 1993, with the Billy
Wilder Award for Excellence in
Direction for his body of work (1998)
and with the William K. Everson Film History
Award in 2001 for his documentary IL MIO
VIAGGIO IN ITALIA.
Scorsese
was nominated for an Oscar last year for
GANGS OF NEW YORK (Roman Polanski won
for THE PIANIST) -- I predict GANGS will
become Scorsese's BARRY LYNDON, a movie
that was met with mixed reviews upon its
release but will grow in stature with
the passing of time. It just gets better
with each viewing.
In
1990, Scorsese and GOODFELLAS lost to
Kevin Costner for DANCES WITH WOLVES –
I ask you, which film is more watchable
today? What, do I amuse you?
Surprisingly,
the Academy nominated Scorsese for THE
LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST in 1988, but
such controversial fare didn't have a
chance against Barry Levinson and RAIN
MAN.
In
1980, Oscar's greatest crime was committed
when Robert Redford and ORDINARY PEOPLE
beat out Scorsese and RAGING BULL. Are
you kidding me? Oh, and he wasn't even
nominated for TAXI DRIVER in 1976 (John
Avildsen won that year for ROCKY, beating
out Ingmar Bergman for FACE TO FACE, Sidney
Lumet for NETWORK, Alan J. Pakula for
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN and Lina Wertmuller
for SEVEN BEAUTIES!).
I
bring all this up to point out the Oscar's
Scorsese iniquity. This year the DGA voted
Clint Eastwood Best Director for MILLION
DOLLAR BABY, so that more or less guarantees
Clint the Oscar. No matter, because Martin
Scorsese still is the best American film
director of the past three decades.
THE
MARTIN SCORSESE FILM COLLECTION (MGM Home
Entertainment)
His
work was celebrated with one of last year's
best box DVD sets, the Warners Home Video
collection of WHO'S THAT KNOCKING (1968),
MEAN STREETS (1973), ALICE DOESN'T LIVE
HERE ANYMORE (1975), GOOD FELLAS (the
highlight of the set), and AFTER HOURS,
and on February 8, MGM/UA Home Entertainment
gives us their Scorsese Collection –
BOXCAR BERTHA (1972), NEW YORK, NEW YORK
(1977), THE LAST WALTZ (1978) and RAGING
BULL (1980).
BOXCAR
BERTHA was a low-budget exploitation movie
starring David Carradine and Barbara Hershey,
produced by Roger Corman, inspired by
the success of BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967).
Set during the Depression, it's a fast-paced
action programmer, with a sensational
final reel that prefigures later Scorsese
marriages of religion and violence. I've
only ever seen bad prints of this title
so it's great to have it look so good.
The original trailer is included.
THE
LAST WALTZ is the same special edition
that's been out for a couple of years.
It chronicles the farewell concert of
The Band, with fantastic guest performances
by Bob Dylan (the subject of a new Scorsese
documentary in the works), Eric Clapton,
Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison,
Muddy Waters, Emmy Lou Harris, Ringo Starr
and Doctor John (oh yeah, and Neil Diamond).
There's some fabulous extra jam session
footage, and two audio commentaries by
Scorsese and the musicians, most notably
The Band frontman Robbie Robertson.
NEW
YORK, NEW YORK and RAGING BULL are worth
the price of the set. I've always loved
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, a love letter to the
studio artifice of Forties Hollywood,
a great blend of the Minnelli MGM style
with the Walsh Warners energy filtered
through Scorsese's unique artistry –
and also a heart-breaking character study
of a creative marriage and the inherent
problems of maintaining a show business
career at the expense of true love. I
saw it a half dozen times upon its first
release, then again when it was re-released,
but it has never looked better than it
does now on DVD. The songs, the cinematography,
production design, costumes, great chemistry
between Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli
– everything is in perfect harmony.
It runs two hours and forty-three minutes
but doesn't feel that long. It was considered
a flop in 1977; today it plays like one
of the maestro's masterpieces –
right up there with MEAN STREETS, TAXI
DRIVER, RAGING BULL, GOOD FELLAS and THE
LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (how many other
working directors can boast of such a
track record). The disc has commentary
from Scorsese and critic Carrie Rickey,
along with 25 minutes of alternate takes
and deleted scenes, and 100 stills, including
storyboards.
The
centerpiece of the Scorsese Collection
is the two-disc RAGING BULL, named the
best film of the 80s by Siskel and Ebert,
Premiere , USA Today ,
American Film and thousands
of die-hard fans. Few films have such
a hard-core following and lines of dialogue
memorized verbatim. Robert De Niro's shape-shifting
performance of misanthropic 40s boxer
Jake LaMotta earned him an Oscar, and
watching it today one is again struck
by how well he and Joe Pesci (in his career-making
role) work together. I'm always amazed
when I encounter someone who has never
seen this landmark movie; if you haven't
experienced RAGING BULL, the time has
never been better, with a gorgeous DVD
transfer doing full justice to Michael
Chapman's black-and-white cinematography,
and loaded with extras – two audio
commentaries from Scorsese, Oscar-winning
editor Thelma Schoonmaker, producers Irwin
Winkler and Robert Chartoff, screenwriters
Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, actress
Theresa Saldana, supervising sound effects
editor Frank Warner, actor John Turturro
(who makes a brief early appearance in
the movie) and Jake LaMotta himself; four
behind-the-scene featurettes; a “making
of” documentary, newsreel footage of the
real LaMotta defending his middleweight
championship; and a fascinating side-by-side
comparison of De Niro and LaMotta in the
ring.
MARTIN
SCORSESE INTERVIEW
When
the NBR honored Scorsese with the Billy
Wilder Award in 1998 for his lifetime
of outstanding filmmaking, Sylvia Caminer
and I interviewed him in his Manhattan
office. Here's the unedited transcript;
I've purposely transcribed his words verbatim,
to catch the rhythm and flow as we talked
stream-of-consciously about vintage cinema:
SYLVIA
CAMINER: When did you first become aware
of Billy Wilder?
MARTIN
SCORSESE: Billy Wilder is a fascinating
figure. I was about eight years old, and
the first one I clearly remember was SUNSET
BOULEVARD. I'd never really seen a combination
of humor, a kind of dark humor, and elements
of film noir, which I didn't really understand
at the time, I was eight years old, but
I did know, beside these Technicolor Westerns
that were being shown in theatres that
my mother and father and my brother took
me to see, there were dark strange tough
movies that didn't all pan out the way
Westerns did, so I was beginning to know
the difference between entertainment and
fantasy which was so beautiful like Westerns
or musicals, that sort of thing, romance
films, adventure films, as opposed to
these tougher, grittier films that were
in a way more realistic to not everyday
life but an overall view of life, especially
coming out of World War Two.
I
point to SUNSET BOULEVARD mainly because
that's the clearest one I remember seeing
at the age of eight. I was too young to
have seen DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) on the
big screen which again is a very powerful,
radical film in a way, especially its
commentary on American society, too, at
the time, putting this very powerful story
of deceit and treachery amongst people
who have the closest trust between each
other, a husband and wife, and putting
this story against the backdrop of pure
Americana at the time, urban Americana
but Americana. They meet to talk in the
supermarket and that sort of thing. It
also has an extraordinary ending between
Edward G. Robinson and Fred MacMurray.
JOHN
GALLAGHER: Casting against type.
MS:
Totally casting Fred MacMurray against
type, right? But it's also the bond of
trust that's just as powerful between
the two men, for instance, the last line:
“I love you, too.” It's totally shocking.
Now, you take that and move it back …
that's Chandler, isn't it?
JG:
Yes, Chandler.
MS:
So between Chandler's vision mixed with
Billy Wilder, you pull back and you look
at it and you say yes, those elements
are there, because those are the elements
that lock you into the story, but then
it's how it's photographed, it's how it's
directed, it's Stanwyck's legs coming
down the steps and that wonderful voiceover
narration. You know he's doomed from the
start, like Edgar G. Ulmer's movie DETOUR
(1946), with Tom Neal. He's gone from
the very first frame and you know it,
and you just watch it go. So it's a visual
style too, it's not just the dialogue.
JG:
And Wilder isn't usually given credit
as a visual stylist.
MS:
Exactly, exactly. And so when I saw SUNSET
BOULEVARD it was even more baroque in
a way. It was a very interesting combination
of a thriller with wry, bitter comedy,
and almost like a horror film in a way
because of what happened to the poor woman,
Gloria Swanson. Why is she like that?
She's been rejected, she's no longer loved
and she's in this mansion and she's burying
the chimpanzee at the beginning. It's
totally shocking. I'd never seen anything
like it. Why is Gloria Swanson that way,
what was she before? She was s beautiful,
you see her in the scene from QUEEN KELLY
(1928) up on the screen and she still
looks beautiful in SUNSET BOULEVARD. As
a child watching it you say this is in
a way, she felt she's no longer loved
by the public, she needs love, she needs
the applause,
she needs people to say she's
great every day, every step of the day.
Every step she takes each day she needs
someone to say you look good, you're beautiful,
you're fantastic. That's why Eric von
Stroheim is there.
JG:
The butler.
MS:
He's the butler, and an ex-husband! …
(LAUGHTER) … The poor thing is tragic
because she loses that love.
And
what an incredible relationship Billy
Wilder had with William Holden in that
film of course and in STALAG 17 (1953),
a number of others (SABRINA, FEDORA).
Holden had that likeable leading man quality.
JG:
He was beautiful early on in his career,
ARIZONA (1940).
MS:
Exactly, exactly. The young Bill Holden
in the Westerns that he made and BLAZE
OF NOON (1947) but here in SUNSET BOULEVARD
you start to see the chink in the armor,
the cracking of the marble in a way and
he starts to become more mature and you
see how he deals with the pain, how he
deals with life, how he deals with maturity,
the maturing process, more how he takes
the blows from life, left and right, left
and right, until finally he does this
extraordinary monologue in NETWORK (1976).
It builds all the way.
JG:
There's a through line.
MS:
There's a through line, and he managed
to express it in many other films, THE
BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI (1955) just the shot
of him standing at the railing of the
aircraft carrier looking out to sea. You
know not only does he have to go back
over those bridges and you know he's going
to get killed, he knows he's gonna get
killed, and he has to go. It's like every
soldier ever – and it's on his face.
And then it's on his face again in THE
COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR (1962), an extraordinary
movie.
JG:
Was that Seaton?
MS:
George Seaton directed it. Seaton produced
BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI but it was directed
by Mark Robson. Also finally in THE WILD
BUNCH (1969), knowing it's a man who had
to go through life that to do certain
things he didn't like. That's what it
is in THE WILD BUNCH, and he also knows
he's on his way out until finally you
have it in NETWORK. But I kind of see
it. That's why SUNSET BOULEVARD for me
is so key, I see it that way because that's
the first one I saw. And then STALAG 17,
he won an Academy Award for that, which
is a beautifully mad version of that play,
big favorite of ours when we were kids.
You
look at Wilder and you begin to understand
that he was a disciple so to speak of
Ernst Lubitsch, I believe it was Wilder
and Preminger. If I'm not mistaken Preminger
signed or finished Lubitsch's last picture,
THAT LADY IN ERMINE (1947).
JG:
Yes.
MS:
So in a way you have this mentor and the
students carrying into mainstream American
culture elements of European culture from
the nineteenth century, and en route to
Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger, things
got tougher … (LAUGHTER) … Got a little
tougher.
JG:
What directors of the 30s and 40s would
you consider particularly neglected?
MS:
I think Leo McCarey, THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937).
JG:
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW in the very same
year.
MS:
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW is an extraordinary
film. Frank Capra's been acknowledged.
Gregory LaCava is another one, we know
him best from MY MAN GODFREY (1936).
JG:
Did you ever see his picture PRIVATE WORLDS
(1935)?
MS:
No, I haven't seen that.
JG:
It's set in a mental institution and there's
a fantastic surrealistic dream sequence.
MS:
Really.
JG:
He came from a visual background, he was
a cartoonist.
MS:
Really, I didn't realize. Fantastic.
JG:
Tay Garnett?
MS:
Tay Garnett is another one. There's a
film called HER MAN (1930), which was
quite something. It's very rare to see
now. I finally saw it on some old video.
He moved the camera and it was so constant
and I was very surprised because the story
has come down from 1929 to 1932 it was
harder to move the camera because of the
sound and that things were nailed down
so to speak. Maybe on ANNA CHRISTIE (1930),
yes, maybe the majority of films at that
time but people like Tay Garnett were
moving that camera. And also a Garnett
movie called PRESTIGE (1932), did you
ever see PRESTIGE?
JG:
That opening sequence!
MS:
The opening sequence is amazing, remarkable.
PRESTIGE is something I saw in a 16mm
print and I was surprised, I kept looking
back at the projector to see if anything
was cut because I was amazed that someone
had made such a long take so soon in the
early talking period.
JG:
Bill Everson loaned me a print of that,
and of course you knew him well. The NBR
has a history award in his honor ( note
: the NBR presented Scorsese with
this award three years after this interview,
for IL MIO VIAGGIO IN ITALIA).
MS:
Fantastic.
JG:
We all miss him so much.
MS:
Absolutely. He was the one that kept it
all together, especially the films from
the 20s and 30s. I tend to gravitate more
towards the films of the 40s and 50s because
that was my formative period. The 30s
we learned from the opening of the vaults
at Turner Pictures back about eight years
ago, on television through the station
TNT and how through Turner Classic Movies
and we learn there's a whole other cinema.
JG:
Like the early Wellman films.
MS:
Oh, fantastic.
JG:
MIDNIGHT MARY (1933).
MS:
SAFE IN HELL (1931).
SC:
You saw a lot of Italian films growing
up.
MS:
On television.
SC:
Did you ever see MIRACLE IN MILAN (1952)
as a kid?
MS:
Yes, fantastic. The first ones I saw were
OPEN CITY (1946) and PAISAN (1946) on
TV, and THE BICYCLE THIEF (1947). Then
there were films shown in theatres, ROME
ELEVEN O'CLOCK (1952) and BITTER RICE
(1950), and then of course LA STRADA (1954)
which they dubbed in English but they
showed it in theatres and it worked anyway.
THE
WARNER BROTHERS GANGSTER COLLECTION:
Last
month I gushed about the restored PUBLIC
ENEMY; this month I gush about the entire
DVD box set of LITTLE CAESAR (1930), THE
PUBLIC ENEMY (1931), THE PETRIFIED FOREST
(1936), ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938),
THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939) and WHITE
HEAT (1949). In addition to the restored
Wellman classic that catapulted Jimmy
Cagney to stardom, Warners brings us the
movie that won Cagney the NBR Award for
Best Actor (ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES) --
five years before his Oscar in YANKEE
DOODLE DANDY – the starmaking turns
of Edward G. Robinson (LITTLE CAESAR)
and Humphrey Bogart (PETRIFIED FOREST)
and two key Raoul Walsh pictures (ROARING
TWENTIES and WHITE HEAT, both starring
Cagney).
No
matter what else is released this year
on DVD – and there are a lot of
goodies on the way – this set will
rank among the best, six beloved movies
that defined the gangster movie, digitally
remastered with Warner's usual quality
control, each with featurettes, commentaries,
introductions by Leonard Maltin, and a
recreation of a night at the movies for
each particular year. Let's go chronologically:
LITTLE
CAESAR: While the gangster genre was as
old as the movies themselves, and reached
sublime heights with UNDERWORLD (1927),
THE RACKET (1928), and THUNDERBOLT (1929),
it was LITTLE CAESAR in 1930 that spawned
a new wave of crime films in the depths
of the Great Depression. Today it's a
crude early talkie, directed by Mervyn
LeRoy, but still entertaining for the
riveting performance of Edward G. Robinson
as Caesar Enrico Bandello, one of the
many early sound gangsters inspired by
Al Capone.
All
the featurettes in this box set are well
done, with interviews with film historians
Andrew Sarris, Gerald
Peary, Robert Sklar, Drew Casper, Mark
Vieira, Alain Silver, and -- of
course – Martin Scorsese. LITTLE
CAESAR: END OF RICO, BEGINNING OF THE
ANTI-HERO places the movie in the context
of the times and offers lots of great
background info; in addition to the aforementioned
historians, it includes a brief interview
with the late Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.,
the film's co-star. The disc also includes
the 1954 re-release foreword that Warners
tacked on to justify the film's violence,
commentary by Richard B. Jewell, and,
in the “Warner's Night at the Movies,”
original newsreel footage, a Vitaphone
short called THE HARD GUY, starring a
pre-feature film Spencer Tracy, and the
cartoon LADY PLAY YOUR MANDOLIN, all from
1930, and theatrical trailers from
LITTLE CAESAR and the 1931 LeRoy-Robinson
FIVE STAR FINAL.
THE
PUBLIC ENEMY: I wrote last month at length
about this title, excited about the restored
footage, originally excised when the picture
was submitted to the MPAA for re-release
after the institution of the Production
Code. There are three instances of additional
footage – the scene where Cagney
is being measured for a suit by an effeminate
tailor; a shot of Joan Blondell serving
Eddie Woods breakfast in bed, indicating
they've spent the night together; and
a continuation of the scene where Cagney
is hiding out in Jane's apartment, gets
drunk and is unwittingly seduced by her.
Needless to say, it's a thrill to have
new footage available from this classic
that's been unseen in 75 years. It's a
perfect example of Warner Home Video going
the extra mile to make these releases
special.
On
this disc we get the the featurette BEER
AND BLOOD: ENEMIES OF THE PUBLIC, audio
commentary by Robert Sklar, the 1954 re-release
foreword, the 1931 Vitaphone short THE
EYES HAVE IT and the cartoon SMILE, DARN
YA SMILE, a newsreel of female athletes
training for the 1932 Olympics, and great
trailers from THE PUBLIC ENEMY and the
Cagney-Joan Blondell BLONDE CRAZY (1931).
THE
PETRIFIED FOREST: Based on the 1935 Robert
Sherwood play about a group of people
held hostage by escaped killer Duke Mantee
and his gang in the Arizona desert, PETRIFIED
FOREST doesn't really hold up today, but
is essential for Humphrey Bogart's star-making
part as Mantee. Bogart had taken a stab
at Hollywood in the early 30s, and even
co-starred in a couple of Warners pictures
(most notably Mervyn LeRoy's excellent
1932 THREE ON A MATCH) but he ultimately
proved a bust and returned to the Broadway
stage. He scored as Duke Mantee in the
stage version opposite Leslie Howard,
and when Howard signed for the screen
version, he insisted Bogart reprise his
role. The performances of Howard and Bette
Davis (reteamed from the 1934 OF HUMAN
BONDAGE) are way over the top, and neither
are helped by Archie Mayo's direction
or the florid Sherwood dialogue, but once
Bogart and the boys show up, the picture
works. This one has the featurette THE
PETRIFIED FOREST: MENACE IN THE DESERT,
commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax,
a radio adaptation starrinf Bogart, Tyrone
Power and Joan Bennett, and in the Night
at the Movies section, a newsreel of Edward's
abdication from the British throne for
the love of a woman, the Vitaphone short
RHYTHMITIS, the Looney Tunes cartoon COO
COO NUT GROVE with lots of movie star
parodies, and trailers for PETRIFIED FOREST
and the Edward G. Robinson-Bogart BULLETS
OR BALLOTS (1936).
ANGELS
WITH DIRTY FACES: This is truly one of
the enduring classics of American gangsterdom
from director Michael Curtiz (ADVENTURES
OF ROBIN HOOD, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, CASABLANCA),
imitated since in countless B-pictures.
Cagney plays Rocky Sullivan, Pat O'Brien
his best friend, Cagney becomes a mobster,
O'Brien a priest. The Dead End Kids steal
the show with their juvenile delinquency,
Ann Sheridan made an early impression
as the girl-in-the-tenement-next-door,
and Bogart plays the “dirty rat” role
he essayed so often before he became a
leading man himself with THE MALTESE FALCON
in 1941. The performances here are simply
vibrant, the studio artifice brilliant
in its evocation of the Lower East Side.
The featurette WHADDYA HEAR? WHADDYA SAY?
is included, along with audio commentary
by Dana Polan, a radio adaptation starring
Cagney and O'Brien, the Looney Tunes cartoon
PORKY AND DAFFY, trailers for ANGELS and
the Cagney-O'Brien comedy BOY MEETS GIRL
(1938), a newsreel of the Munich
Pact, and a rare Technicolor short OUT
WHERE THE STARS BEGIN, set on the Warner's
lot and featuring terrific footage of
the studio and cameos from Ann Sheridan,
Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris and Dick Foran.
THE
ROARING TWENTIES: Director Raoul Walsh
joined Warners in 1939 for this picture
and began an unprecedented string of hits,
including THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, THEY DIED
WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, STRAWBERRY BLONDE,
GENTLEMAN JIM and OBJECTIVE BURMA. Like
most of his contemporaries, Walsh's beginnings
were in silent film (in fact, he started
as an actor, and played John Wilkes Booth
in Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION in 1915),
and he knew how to keep things moving
and visually interesting. With THE ROARING
TWENTIES Walsh tackled Mark Hellinger's
story of a World War One vet (Cagney)
who falls into a life of crime and battles
fellow vet-turned-gangster Bogart. It's
another seminal crime film, famous for
its decade-spanning montages, re-used
in countless films and TV programs. It's
a terrific show, and rewards frequent
viewings.
Here
we have THE ROARING TWENTIES: THE WORLD
MOVES ON featurette, audio commentary
from Lincoln Hurst, the musical short
ALL GIRL REVUE (with a very young pre-MGM
June Allyson), the Looney Tune THUGS WITH
DIRTY MUGS, the comedy short THE GREAT
LIBRARY MISERY, trailers for ROARING TWENTIES
and the Cagney-Raft EACH DAWN I DIE (1939),
and a newsreel covering the 1939 San Francisco
and New York World Fairs.
WHITE
HEAT: Ten years after THE ROARING TWENTIES,
Cagney and Walsh reunited for WHITE HEAT,
the most brutal crime picture of its day.
Cagney plays psychopathic Cody Jarrett,
Edmond O'Brien the Treasury agent who
goes undercover to nab him. Cagney was
the only gangster actor who could get
away with sitting on his mother's lap
in between murderous rampages. Walsh gives
the proceedings a police procedural style
that is years ahead of its time, and makes
WHITE HEAT the most modern of vintage
crime films. It is simply fascinating
throughout this box set to watch the development
of James Cagney from 1931's PUBLIC ENEMY
to ANGELS and ROARING TWENTIES in 1938-39,
to WHITE HEAT in 1949. The featurette
TOP OF THE WORLD and the Drew Casper commentary
are especially strong, and the extras
include trailers for WHITE HEAT and THE
FOUNTAINHEAD with Gary Cooper and Patricia
Neal, the Bugs Bunny cartoon HOMELESS
HARE and the Joe McDoakes comedy short
SO YOU THINK YOU'RE NOT GUILTY.
These
six features represent one of our most
important pop culture legacies, as well
as the defining work of one of our greatest
film actors, James Cagney. Warners has
certainly lived up to their standards
with this indispensable release.
THIS
MONTH'S RECOMMENDED DVDs
Sony
Pictures Home Entertainment controls the
vintage Columbia Pictures library, and
releases one of their greatest titles
this month, Howard Hawks' screwball comedy
TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934). Up until this
time, major stars did not generally behave
like low comedians; this picture changed
all that. John Barrymore has his favorite
role in Oscar Jaffe, the Broadway impresario
who transforms lingerie model Mildred
Plotka (Carole Lombard) into Great White
Way star Lily Garland. Barrymore is a
pure delight. And it's wonderful to see
Lombard transform from her previous roles
as a clothes horse into a fully accomplished
comedienne (and role model and idol of
Lucille Ball). Revel in the Ben Hecht-Charles
MacArthur dialogue, rejoice in wonderful
character actors Walter Connolly, Roscoe
Karns, Herman Bing and Etienne Girardot.
I've seen this movie revived on the big
screen and on pre-recorded homevideo cassette;
it's always looked soft focus –
until now. The DVD is shimmeringly gorgeous.
Paramount
Home Video has two new titles of interest.
William Wyler's CARRIE (1952) is one of
the great director's best films, but forgotten
in the shadows of BEN HUR (1959), ROMAN
HOLIDAY (1953), THE HEIRESS (1949), THE
BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (!946), MRS. MINIVER
(1942), WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939), DEAD
END (1937) and DODSWORTH (1936).
It's a brutally dramatic adaptation of
Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie ,
with Jennifer Jones in the title role
of the country girl who comes to turn
of the century Chicago to make good, and
Laurence Olivier as the man whose life
she ruins. Olivier's performance is devastating,
one of his finest screen performances.
Paramount's DVD includes a deleted
scene (Olivier in a Bowery flophouse)
never before seen by audiences; the studio
excised the sequence feeling it presented
a negative view of America.
Paramount's
TOP GUN is the ultimate edition of this
1986 classic, the quintessential Reagan
era blockbuster. The double-disc set presents
audio commentaries by producer Jerry Bruckheimer,
director Tony Scott and various naval
experts. Four music videos take us back
to 1986 – including Kenny Loggins'
“Danger Zone” and Berlin's “Take My Breath
Away.” There's also lots of featurettes,
a documentary, Tom Cruise interviews and
storyboards. In William Wellman Jr.'s
documentary on his father, WILD BILL:
HOLLYWOOD MAVERICK, director Tony Scott
revealed that he studied Wellman's 1927
WINGS for the aerial footage, and was
inspired for his own sixty-years-on epic.
Universal
gives the deluxe treatment to their pre-Oscar
DVD release of RAY. Jamie Foxx makes you
forget you're watching an actor –
that is Ray Charles on the screen.
He won the NBR's Best Actor award last
month, and he will surely win the Academy
Award as well. Taylor Hackford's direction
has been overlooked this awards seasons,
perhaps because the film takes a straightforward
biopic approach to the material but this
simplicity helps give the movie its power,
along with the original Ray Charles music
and the inspirational story. There's no
need for razzle dazzle direction here.
RAY ran two hours and thirty-three minutes
in the theatre; the DVD gives us an additional
half-hour of deleted scenes; remarkably,
all of them are terrific, especially a
scene early in the film where Ray harmonizes
with a group of Marines on the bus. There
are two uncut musical performances (“What
Kind of Man Are You?” and “Hit the Road,
Jack”), a tribute from friends, and featurettes.
THE
MOTORCYCLE DIARIES has been nominated
for Oscars for Best Original Song and
adapted screenplay (by Jose Rivera), and
was named one of the top five foreign
language films by the NBR. Gael Garcia
Bernal plays young Ernesto Guevara, an
idealistic medical student before he became
the revolutionary Che. Rodrigo de la Serna
portrays his friend Alberto Granado; in
1952, they take a road trip across 5,000
miles of South America in a journey of
self-awareness, on a leaky 1939 Norton
motorcycle. The filmmakers do a good job
of keeping politics under the surface;
the power of the movie is completely dependent
on your view of Che Guevara – revolutionary
man of the people or repressive murderer.
Check out the message boards for this
movie on the Internet Movie Data Base
( www.imdb.com
) for an extremely lively (and sometimes
insane) debate on the subject. Politics
aside, director Walter Salles tops his
impressive CENTRAL STATION with his filmmaking
technique, short, terse scenes propelling
the narrative through pampas, mountains,
desert and jungle. Universal's DVD is
an excellent presentation, with deleted
scenes, a very good featurette, interviews
with Bernal, music composer Gustavo Santaolalla
and the real Alberto Granado.
Universal
owns the rights to the Paramount library
from 1929 to 1949, and is starting to
release more and more vintage titles,
including some from Universal Pictures'
classic years. Last year we got three
volumes of Abbott and Costello (a total
of 24 Universal movies!), and the Marx
Brothers Silver Collection featuring Groucho,
Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo (a fifth brother,
Gummo, left the act before they hit the
movies). The Marx box set contains their
first five features, all made for Paramount
-- THE COCONUTS (1929), ANIMAL CRACKERS
(1930), MONKEY BUSINESS (1931), HORSE
FEATHERS (1932) and DUCK SOUP (1933).
These films represent the Marx Brothers
at their most pure, before they moved
to MGM and became sanitized with ingénue
subplots and ludicrous musical interludes.
THE COCONUTS and ANIMAL CRACKERS are interesting
for the recreations of their hit Broadway
shows, and were in fact both filmed at
Paramount's East Coast Studio in Astoria,
Long Island. The boys moved to Hollywood
and really came into their own with MONKEY
BUSINESS, playing stowaways on an ocean
liner. For me, HORSE FEATHERS has always
been their funniest comedy, as they run
amok on a college campus, with DUCK SOUP
a really close second; DUCK SOUP (originally
titled CRACKED ICE in pre-production)
is the Marx movie considered by most critics
to be their best, a brutal take on government
and war. The collection includes a bonus
disc featuring interviews with Harpo (1961),
Groucho (1963) and Harpo's son (1985).
Warner Home Video released a box set last
year of the Brothers' MGM titles, including
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935) and A DAY
AT THE RACES (1937), so nearly all of
their work is available on DVD, except
RKO's ROOM SERVICE (1938) and the independent
LOVE HAPPY (1949), their last and weakest
effort.
Universal
has also done right by W.C. Fields with
The W. C. Fields Comedy Collection. This
set has two of his best early Paramounts
– the all-star INTERNATIONAL HOUSE
(1933) with George Burns and Gracie Allen,
Rudy Vallee, Bela Lugosi, Baby Rose Marie
years before THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, and
Cab Calloway performing “Reefer Man;”
and IT'S A GIFT (1934), frequently named
by the late great William K. Everson as
Fields' finest film. It's really worth
taking the time to look on E-Bay or in
used bookstores for Everson's The Art
of W.C. Fields , the best book on
the comedian. The Fields DVD set includes
an excellent documentary, BEHIND THE LAUGHTER.
Along with the Marx Brothers collection,
this set is a must for vintage comedy
fans.
Universal
has more Fields in the vault -- MILLION
DOLLAR LEGS (1932), IF I HAD A MILLION
(1932), TILLIE AND GUS (1933), YOU'RE
TELLING ME (1934), MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE
(1935), MISSISSIPPI (1935), POPPY (1936)
and NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK
(1941) – enough for another box
set a la the Abbott and Costello collections.
Warner's
Home Video has taken the lead in releasing
quality vintage titles; hopefully Universal
will follow their example and dig deeper
into the library. They own the Stternberg-Dietrich
Paramounts, the DeMille Americana series
(so far THE PLAINSMAN and REAP THE WILD
WIND have been released), some great Lubitschs
like the Chevalier-MacDonald musicals
and DESIGN FOR LIVING, lots of pre-Code
Gary Cooper, Fredric March, Claudette
Colbert, Miriam Hopkins, Mae West and
George Raft titles, and classic horror
like ISLAND OF LOST SOULS and MURDERS
IN THE ZOO.
Two
great John Wayne-William Wellman movies,
THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954) and ISLAND
IN THE SKY (1953) are being released by
Paramount Home Video this spring on DVD;
they've been unavailable for years and
are coming out by arrangement with Wayne's
estate. Paramount also has some terrific
silent titles they could release as well,
including DeMille's original version of
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1923), Sternberg's
UNDERWORLD (1927), THE LAST COMMAND (1928),
and DOCKS OF NEW YORK (1928), and especially
Wellman's aerial epic WINGS (1927), winner
of the first Academy Award for Best Picture.
Two
Scorsese collections, Warner's gangsters,
Marx Brothers at Paramount and MGM, some
of the best Fields comedies – it
is truly great to be part of the DVD revolution.
So many movies, so little time!
-- JOHN GALLAGHER
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