September 2006: Martin McDonagh

by John Gallagher

This column is back after a summer spent producing a new feature film, a horror comedy called HOT BABY, starring Mel Gorham (SMOKE, COPLAND), Adam Scarimbolo (A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS, the 2006 Sundance Ensemble Cast winner), Noah Fleiss (one of the stars of BRICK, another 2006 Sundance winner), Emily Grace (star of the 2004 Sundance winner WHAT ALICE FOUND), Brian Vincent (THE DELI, BLUE MOON) and Heidi Kristoffer (CUPIDITY). My company's co-production of MY BROTHER, starring Vanessa Williams, just won the Grand Jury Prize at the HBO American Black Film Festival, and our picture THE INSURGENTS, starring John Shea and Mary Stuart Masterson, has its world premiere on September 9th at the Filmfest Oldenburg in Germany. It's been a busy production year …

THE BEST PLAY OF THE YEAR: Once upon a time, this Irish guy sat down in front of a TV, watched soaps all day every day and wrote longhand in school notebooks. He wrote plays. The plays were produced. The plays were all nominated for Tonys. Then he wrote (and directed) a short film. It won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Short Film. It was called SIX SHOOTER, and it starred one of the great Irish character actors, Brendan Gleeson (28 DAYS LATER, GANGS OF NEW YORK, THE GENERAL, BRAVEHEART),

The plays this Irish guy wrote were THE PILLOWMAN, THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE, THE LONESOME WEST, and the subject of my rave feckin' review, THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE. The Irish guy's name is Martin McDonagh, and he has been put on this earth to share his tales of Celtic psychotics and oddballs, riddled with the lovely lyrical dialogue that's made O'Casey and Yeats sing through the years, with a decidedly Tarantino tilt to the whole damn thing. Remember the influence Quentin had on movies? One RESERVOIR PULP ripoff after another? Martin McDonagh gives us the real deal – the story, the characters, the dark black humor, the gruesome bloody excess of it'all, it'all.

In THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE, Martin McDonagh uploads his talent into the genius category. You MUST see this play. Brilliant, hilarious, uproarious – it's that good. A vicious IRA hitman, an expert in torture and terror, faces the accidental roadside death of his cat … the results are unforgettable yet totally believable, even though the events twist and turn into the impossible, for a finale that had the audience clamoring. Wilson Milam's staging makes us forget whether we're in a cottage or a roadside on an island off the coast of Galway or Mayo. Right down the line, the performances are exceptional, especially Peter Gerety as the hitman's father and Alison Pill as the hitman's equally insane love interest. David Wilmot stars as Padraic, the IRA killer; the night I saw the show, his understudy Brian Avers performed. Mr. Avers was nothing short of fantastic; I can only imagine what Wilmot's performance is like. I'd like to see it again with him.

Yes, the show sometimes calls for a strong stomach, but after all the treacle that passes as theatre, this strong-boned blood-and-thunder tale is incredibly refreshing. It's the best play I've seen all year. See it while you can.

Now, for us movie lovers, the good news is Martin McDonagh is taking his twisted vision to the big screen. He will direct his own screenplay of IN BRUGES, based on his play, another tale of psychotic assassins (are there any other kind?) as his feature film debut.   It should prove to be quite the motion picture; in the meantime, me darlin's, head over to the Lyceum Theatre and enjoy an evening with THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE.

ONE OF THE BEST FILM BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Last time I hailed William Wellman, Jr.'s personal bio-narrative about his Dad's breakthrough film, WINGS ( The Man and His Win gs), a film history book highlighting the World War One letters of the young aviator Wild Bill Wellman, long before he directed THE PUBLIC ENEMY, A STAR IS BORN, BEAU GESTE, ROXIE HART, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, THE STORY OF G.I. JOE, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY and dozens of others. Now I praise a book steeped in a professional and academic research tradition in which the historian travels the far flung corners to various international archives. In L.A. alone, USC houses production document collections of Golden Age film factories like Warners, MGM, Fox and Universal; the Academy library has the Paramount collection while UCLA houses RKO and Fox collections. The University of Texas in Austin is home to the gargantuan David O. Selznick collection. No self respecting historian should publish a book without consulting the vast primary resources of these holdings. They are full of secrets and knowledge and information.

This is why Herve Dumont's Frank Borzage: The Life and Films of a Hollywood Romantic   (McFarland, www.mcfarlandpub.com) is so special, one of the most exceptional works on a Golden Age director that I have ever read (and I've read ‘em all, trust me). Assiduously researched at archives the world over, illustrated with rare and wonderful behind-the-scenes stills, written with fondness yet balance, Dumont brings a neglected figure into the spotlight -- the great Frank Borzage, winner of two of the first five Oscars for best direction (7 TH HEAVEN, BAD GIRL), a versatile auteur whose theme of spiritual love informed his work for four decades. In the late silent era, Borzage earned the devotion of audiences with 7 TH HEAVEN (1927) and STREET ANGEL (1928), and the special admiration (some would say fetish) of surrealist French critics. Borzage's best romances -- A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1932) with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes, A MAN'S CASTLE (1933) with Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young, HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937) with Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur -- defined his reputation, but he also directed Will Roger's first talkie, 1929's THEY HAD TO SEE PARIS, the Dick Powell musical FLIRTATION WALK (1934), DESIRE (1936), produced by Lubitsch, starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich. a romantic comedy confection with a decidedly dark edge. And it was Borzage who made not one, but three cautionary dramas exposing the Nazi regime before the war (1934's LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW?, 1938's THREE COMRADES, 1940's THE MORTAL STORM). The authors excels in covering all of Brorazage's films, providing a thorough biography in a far more exhaustive research effort than most directorial studies. As such, it   should stand as a model for future film historians. Initially published in French in 1993 (winning   a prize as the year's best European film book), the volume has been translated by Jonathan Kaplansky; one would never know this was a translated work, so Mr. Kaplansky too has done a great job. Mr. Dumont is the director of the Swiss National Archive   in Lausanne; I hope he is at work with an equally researched book on another neglected master.

FIVE OF THE BEST BOX SETS OF THE YEAR: Would you be surprised that they are all in release from Warner Home Video, and that they should be in any self-respecting DVD library? WHV continues do outdo themselves; here are six box sets available at stores and on Amazon or your favorite internet procurer:

CLARK GABLE: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION: Long live the King! Gable gets the royal treatment with six new-to- DVD titles – Robert Z. Leonard's DANCING LADY (1933), a musical drama with frequent co-star Joan Crawford, the screen debuts of Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy, and comedic support from The Three Stooges; Tay Garnett's CHINA SEAS (1935), a rousing contemporary pirate adventure with Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Rosalind Russell, Robert Benchley, C. Aubrey Smith and Lewis Stone (man, those Metro casts!), Clarence Brown's mild romantic comedy WIFE VS. SECRETARY (1936) with Harlow, Myrna Loy and James Stewart); Woody Van Dyke's epic of the 1906 quake, SAN FRANCISCO (1936), a memorable teaming with Spencer Tracy as Jeanette MacDonald sings (the first of nine Oscar-nominated performances from Tracy); Jack Conway's roughnecks drama BOOM TOWN (1940, uncredited direction from Victor Fleming) teaming Gable and Tracy with Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr; and MOGAMBO (1953), John Ford's stunning Technicolor remake of Fleming's 1932 RED DUST (which made Gable and Harlow superstars), with location work in Africa replacing studio sets of the Vietnamese jungle, offering Gable romance from Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. As usual with Warner Home Video, there's a plethora of bonus goodies, including musical shorts, dramatic shorts, trailers, travelogues, an alternate ending to SAN FRANCISCO, and, on the DANCING LADY disc, two early pre-Columbia shorts featuring The Three Stooges. This set should be the first of many Gable collections from WHV, since he toiled mainly at Metro, and hopefully we can look forward to Brown's A FREE SOUL (1931), Leonard's SUSAN LENOX: HER FALL AND RISE (1931), Fleming's RED DUST (1932), THE WHITE SISTER (1933), and TEST PILOT (1938), Conway's MANHATTAN MELODRAMA (1934) and TOO HOT TO HANDLE (1938), Brown's IDIOTS' DELIGHT (1939), Borzage's STRANGE CARGO (1940), Vidor's COMRADE X (1940), Conway's HONKY TONK (1941), Fleming's ADVENTURE (1945), Conway's THE HUCKSTERS (1947), Wood's COMMAND DECISION (1949), Brown's KEY TO THE CITY (1950) and Wellman's ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI (1951), opposite leading ladies Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner,   Deborah Kerr, Loretta Young, and Ava Gardner. It was tough work, but somebody had to do it.

(Fox has compiled its three Gable features into a box set – William Wellman's exuberant CALL OF THE WILD (1935), with a radiant Loretta Young; Edward Dmytryk's serviceable SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (1955), with the King opposite Susan Hayward; and Raoul Walsh's rousing Western adventure THE TALL MEN (1955) with Jane Russell. The latter two are in beautiful Technicolor and CinemaScope; the whole set is recommended).

JOHN FORD/JOHN WAYNE: WHV does a smashing job with this set, highlighting a gorgeous restored print of the Western classic THE SEARCHERS (1956), along with lots of extras (including a   reproduction of a classic comic book). Wayne and Ford enjoyed one of the richest actor-director collaborations in history, and we get STAGECOACH (1939), THE LONG VOYAGE HOME (1940), THEY WERE EXPENDABLE (1945), FORT APACHE (!948), 3 GODFATHERS (1948), SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1949) and THE WINGS OF EAGLES (1957). A companion collection offers new releases on some Ford classics – THE LOST PATROL (1934) in a longer version unseen for years, THE INFORMER (1935) with Victor McLaglen's Oscar-winning performance, Katharine Hepburn as MARY OF SCOTLAND (1936), the underrated SERGEANT RUTLEDGE (1960), and the unfairly maligned epic CHEYENNE AUTUMN (1964).

Warners follows up last year's Bette Davis Collection with THE BETTE DAVIS COLLECTION Volume Two; it's even better than Volume One, with the hard-boiled MARKED WOMAN (1937), with Bette standing up to gangster Eduardo Ciannelli; a remastered special edition of JEZEBEL (1938), the William Wyler drama set in the Antebellum South, something of a long screen test for Scarlett O'Hara (Bette and Errol Flynn were touted by Warners for the leads in the following year's GONE WITH THE WIND); the delightful Kaugman-Hart comedy THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1941), with Bette is a straight romantic role in support of blustery Monty Woolley; the brilliant verbal catfight comedy OLD ACQUAINTANCE (1943), pitting Bette against Miriam Hopkins; a two-disc special edition of Robert Aldrich's WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962); and STARDUST: THE BETTE DAVIS STORY, an excellent documentary. The set is packed with extras – audio commentaries (including the late director Vincent Sherman on OLD ACQUAINTANCE), cartoons, shorts, and featurettes.

The WARNER BROTHERS TOUGH GUYS COLLECTIONS celebrates Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft, with Cagney starring in G-MEN (1935), Robinson and Bogie in BULLETS OR BALLOTS (1936), Bogart in SAN QUENTIN (1937), Edward G. in the hilarious A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER (1938), Cagney and Raft in the quintessential prison picture EACH DAWN I DIE (1939), and a fully restored version of Cagney's CITY FOR CONQUEST (1940), featuring additional footage. This collection includes some of the best extras yet on a Warners set – bloopers from the Golden Age of Thirties Warners.

I also recommend WHV's release of John Milius' ROUGH RIDERS (1998), a fantastic adventure mini-series starring Tom Berenger as Teddy Roosevelt; and special editions of Robert Aldrich's THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) starring Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan; and John Frankenheimer's Cinerama drama GRAND PRIX (1966), starring James Garner.

WHV also release some excellent compilations, including the complete series of the sci-fi thriller INVASION ; Bruce Campbell's cult Western comedy series THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR., also complete; and the first seasons of F TROOP and CHEYENNE . The studio has also been releasing all of its SUPERMAN collections, including the vintage George Reeves series. For more modern sci-fi, pick up V FOR VENDETTA (2006), one of the year's best films, with an outstanding cast Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Hugo Weaving and John Hurt.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just released a stunning print of Billy Wilder's film noir masterpiece DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) in a new special edition, as well as a DVD of Frank Capra's neglected STATE OF THE UNION (1948) starring Tracy and Hepburn.

                                                                                                                        John Gallagher

                                        jgmovie@gmail.com

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