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THE
PROFESSIONALS :
By 1966, Richard Brooks (1912-1992) had
become one of Hollywood's most important
directors. After a screenwriting apprenticeship
for Jules Dassin and his mentor John Huston,
Brooks made a series of movies that helped
define Fifties cinema: THE BLACKBOARD
JUNGLE (1955), A CATERED AFFAIR (1956),
SOMETHING OF VALUE (1957), CAT ON A HOT
TIN ROOF (1958) and THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
(1958), all produced during the last glory
days of MGM.
Brooks
turned independent with his 1960 production
of Sinclair Lewis' ELMER GANTRY, earning
Oscars for Burt Lancaster and Shirley
Jones. After another Tennessee Williams
adaptation (1961's SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH),
Brooks tackled Joseph Conrad's novel LORD
JIM (1965) with Peter O'Toole in the title
role as the doomed hero. It was an epic
picture, ambitious but flawed; for his
next film, Brooks decided to play it safe
with a Western that turned to be anything
but traditional. It was THE PROFESSIONALS,
one of the great Westerns, as much fun
today as it was then. The movie was especially
distinguished by its cast – Lee
Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and
Woody Strode as the mercenaries hired
by millionaire Ralph Bellamy to rescue
his beautiful young wife Claudia Cardinale
from the clutches of bandit Jack Palance.
Conrad Hall's color cinematography, Maurice
Jarre's stirring score, and the Death
Valley locations added to the epic sweep
of the picture. A year before Sergio Leone's
FISTFUL spaghetti Westerns hit American
screens, THE PROFESSIONALS anticipated
this new wave of Western with its cynicism
and violence.
I
interviewed Ralph Bellamy in 1982; here's
what he had to say about THE PROFESSIONALS:
RALPH
BELLAMY: We went on location for that,
down around Indio, California. Richard
Brooks didn't need a megaphone, or a loudspeaker
system. He could make himself heard, even
out in the wilds. He's an excellent director.
He had an imagination, he could add to
a scene beyond the script and dared to
do a lot of things. I think we made a
good picture. I enjoyed working for him.
He was a hard worker and everybody in
the cast worked hard but you enjoyed it.
It all made sense, as it sometimes doesn't
with some directors.
Four
years later, during the press tour for
THE DELTA FORCE, I spoke with Lee Marvin
at length, and he reminisced about TEHE
PROFESSIONALS:
LEE
MARVIN: I loved Richard Brooks. He wrote
the script. He gave me the book it was
based on (by Frank O'Rourke), wrote the
script, got the cast together. He got
a good cast, a great story, a big story,
sweeping. I enjoyed that.
JOHN
GALLAGHER: You worked especially well
with Woody Strode.
LM:
Woody. Yeah, Woody and I worked together
before and since, well, he was in THE
MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE. Yeah, dear
friend.
JG:
It looked like a tough location, shooting
in Death Valley.
LM:
That wasn't the tough part. The tough
part was we were living in Las Vegas at
the Mint Hotel, which had seven bars,
27 hours a day gambling, anything you
wanted, 21 topless Watusi girls in the
basement. So it was getting the guys to
work that was the problem. Once we got
out there to these chasms and this terrible
terrain was the only time that you got
to rest! Otherwise you were on the expense
account going crazy in Las Vegas for ten
weeks.
JG:
The story goes that Richard Brooks would
not let his script leave his hand. Is
that true?
LM:
He showed you the script originally then
he had you hand it in, so when you'd go
to work the next day he'd hand you an
onion skin piece of paper and he'd say,
“Don't show it to Burt.” It's a scene
between you and Burt -- “Whaddya mean
don't show it to Burt, how is Burt gonna
know those lines?” And then you'd see
him over there slipping it to Burt and
saying “Don't show it to Lee.” Well, Brooks
was a magnificent guy but I think what
it was is he's always saying he hates
his scripts getting leaked out to TV so
it gets out on the TV screen and it takes
away his impact on a feature screen. So
he's probably very right.
THE
PROFESSIONALS earned Oscar nominations
for Brooks' direction and script, and
Hall's photography, and they teamed up
the next year for IN COLD BLOOD, based
on the true life Truman Capote book. Brooks
also made the underrated 1975 Western
BITE THE BULLET, but for me, THE PROFESSIONALS
represents the zenith of his career. Sony
Pictures Entertainment has just released
a Special Edition DVD and it's a stunner,
so beautifully remastered that you feel
you can almost step into the picture.
The
disc includes three new documentaries
by Laurent Bouzereau, hands-down the best
director of DVD documentaries. “Memories
of THE PROFESSIONALS” features behind-the-scenes
footage from location, and reminiscences
by actresses Claudia Cardinale and Marie
Gomez, Lancaster biographer Kate Buford,
and the late Conrad Hall (honored by the
NBR a couple of years ago for his lifetime
achievement in cinematography); “THE PROFESSIONALS:
A Classic” featuring interviews with James
Bond director Martin Campbell, Buford,
and Burt Lancaster's daughter Joanna;
and “Burt Lancaster: A Portrait” with
Joanna Lancaster and Kate Buford.
MORE
WESTERNS : This is a good month
for Westerns on DVD. From Sony
comes an elaborate SILVERADO
set that makes a great gift
for any Western lover. Written and directed
by Lawrence Kasdan fresh from his successes
with BODY HEAT and THE BIG CHILL, SILVERADO
holds up pretty darn good twenty years
later, with a clever script and an appealing
cast headed by Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner,
Danny Glover, Rosanna Arquette, Jeff Goldblum,
John Cleese, Brian Dennehy and Linda Hunt.
It's a veritable love letter to the genre,
clearly made with a great love and respect
for the conventions of the Western. The
movie has been digitally remastered and
looks fantastic; SPE's two-disc set includes
a MAKING OF SILVERADO featuring interviews
with cast and crew, a new featurette called
RETURN TO SILVERADO WITH KEVIN COSTNER;
A HISTORY OF WESTERN SHOOTOUTS, narrated
by John Cleese; a 20-page “movie scrapbook;”
a deck of SILVERADO playing cards; an
outstanding essay by author/historian/filmmaker
Frank Thompson on the history of the Western;
and an informative and entertaining audio
commentary by the redoubtable Mr.
Thompson with Paul Hutton and Steve Aaron
of UCLA and the Gene Autry Museum. SPE
has also released Delmer Daves' underrated
“adult” Western JUBAL
(1956), a strong psychological drama starring
Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine and Rod Steiger
(the latter two thespians chewing up the
beautiful scenery in a most delightful
fashion), restored to its widescreen glory,
as well as the 1941 TEXAS
with two young stars-to-be, William Holden
and Glenn Ford, and the 1943 Technicolor
shoot-em-up THE DESPERADOES ,
with Claire Trevor, Ford and Randolph
Scott.
From
MGM comes the crazy
Western VIVA MARIA (1963)
starring Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau
as two strippers who inspire a revolution
in Central America. It's a funny, sexy,
grotesque, sometimes surreal movie highlighted
by its two amazing stars at the height
of their fame. Perhaps the most remarkable
thing about the picture is the fact that
it was directed by Louis Malle, best known
for sensitive dramas like LACOMBE LUCIEN
and ATLANTIC CITY. VIVA MARIA is an oddity
in his filmography, but it's highly entertaining
and well worth a look. I suspect that
it influenced Leone's 1971 outstanding
Revolution Western DUCK YOU SUCKER aka
A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE aka ONCE UPON A
TIME IN THE REVOLUTION.
MGM
also gives us a long overdue
letterbox version of George Roy Hill's
1965 epic HAWAII , starring
Julie Andrews, Max von Sydow and Richard
Harris, based on James Michener's best-selling
novel. It examines the early 19 th Century
missionaries who came to the island paradise
to convert the hedonistic natives to their
Puritan ways and the ensuing conflicts.
The intelligent script, powerful performances,
gorgeous cinematography and vibrant Elmer
Bernstein score go a long way to making
HAWAII one of the best of Sixties epics.
I interviewed Max Von Sydow in the mid-80s
but focused primarily on his work with
Ingmar Bergman, George Stevens and William
Friedkin, and unfortunately ignored HAWAII
other than to ask about his relationship
with director Hill: “He's a wonderful
actor's director and I enjoyed very much
working with him, and would very much
like to work with him again.” HAWAII was
an important picture for George Hill,
and paved the way for his next films,
the Redford-Newman blockbusters BUTCH
CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1968) and
THE STING (1973).
MILESTONE
: For 15 years, Dennis Doros
and Amy Heller have been steadily providing
a stream of quality DVDs, releasing new
films and vintage fare, specializing in
restorations and silent classics. Releases
like Cooper and Schoedsack's GRASS (1925)
and CHANG (1927), Roland West's THE BAT
WHISPERS (1931), Michael Powell's THE
EDGE OF THE WORLD(1937), and Kevin Brownlow's
IT HAPPENED HERE (1967) have earned them
special awards from the New York
Film Critics Circle and the National Society
of Film Critics. They're responsible for
the best silent film release of the year
so far, the 1929 PICCADILLY ,
directed by E.A. Dupont, restored by the
British Film Institute. One of the last
British silents, PICCADILLY revolves around
the Piccadilly Club, an elaborate nightclub
where scullery maid Anna May Wong is thrust
into the limelight and becomes a sensation,
enticing men with Oriental exoticism.
She is the raison d'etre for the film,
a dazzling actress whose recent recognition
for this film has created the same kind
of cult that attended the rediscovery
of Louise Brooks' movies 30 years ago.
Anna
May Wong (1905-1961) was the first Chinese-American
actor to have a substantial film career.
She starred in the early Technicolor feature
TOLL OF THE SEA (1922), had good parts
in Raoul Walsh's THE THIEF OF BAGDAD and
Herbert Brenon's PETER PAN (both 1924),
and starred opposite Lon Chaney in MR.
WU (1927) before heading to Europe (coincidentally,
around the same time as Louise Brooks)
to work in England and Germany. She returned
to Hollywood for the part for which she
was best known previously to Milestone's
release, in Josef Von Sternberg's SHANGHAI
EXPRESS (1932) with Marlene Dietrich.
I remember watching her in three 1937-38
Paramount programmers on New York's WPIX-TV
as a kid – DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI,
DANGEROUS TO KNOW, KING OF CHINATOWN –
and would love to see them again. Cursory
roles in Nicholas Ray's THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS
(1959) and the Lana Turner vehicle PORTRAIT
IN BLACK (1960) – both opposite
Anthony Quinn – rounded out her
career. In general, she had a much more
fulfilling career than Brooks, but unfortunately
did not live to enjoy the recognition
that attended Brooks in her old age after
she was rediscovered by new generations
of film lovers.
Wong
exudes sex and charisma in PICCADILLY,
mesmerizing us as E.A. Dupont's mobile
camera lavishes directorial love on her.
Dupont was responsible for the influential
1925 German classic VARIETY; he ended
his career directing Grade Z drek like
THE NEANDERTHAL MAN on Hollywood's Poverty
Row. It's sad that such a fine craftsman
degenerated to that point, but we have
PICCADILLY to celebrate his talent. The
cast includes Twenties vamp Gilda Gray,
Jameson Thomas (Claudette Colbert's almost-bridegroom
in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT), Cyril Ritchard
(later a Broadway sensation as Captain
Hook in PETER PAN), and a young Charles
Laughton. The Milestone DVD includes an
interesting one-take, five-minute sound
intro that was added to the film in 1929
(so it could be misleadingly advertised
as a talkie); a video documentary on Neil
Brand, who composed a new score for the
film; an extensive stills gallery; the
original 1929 British press kit; video
excerpts from a San Francisco Asian American
Film Festival on Anna May Wong; and two
downloadable DVD-ROM features (the Milestone
press kit and “Five Authors in Search
of Anna May Wong”).
Visit
Milestone at www.milestonefilms.com
and peruse their catalogue … and
whet your appetite for their upcoming
Charley Chase comedy collection, recently
broadcast as part of Turner Classic Movies
April comedy festival.
L'ECLISSE
: I tried to get into Michelangelo
Antonioni when I was in film school but
I found his work cold, pretentious and
even boring. I just couldn't understand
what all the critical furor was about.
Yes, I liked BLOW-UP (1966) but everything
else (including THE PASSENGER and ZABRISKIE
POINT) sent me to sleep. When it came
to Italian cinema, I leaned much more
in favor of my beloved Fellini and DeSica.
I checked out Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA
(1959) and especially IL GRIDO (1957)
a few years ago and was riveted; I guess
I had to be a grown-up to relate to all
the despair, confusion, alienation and
angst … for whatever reason his style
hit me right between the eyes. L'AVVENTURA,
LA NOTTE (1961), and L'ECLISSE (1962)
represent a trilogy of sorts for the director
and his great muse, the incredible actress
Monica Vitti, all dealing with adult relationships
in the context of modern society. Criterion
has just released a two-disc set for L'ECLISSE,
a stunning drama in which Vitti leaves
a relationship with Francisco Rabal (star
of Bunuel's NAZARIN and VIRIDIANA) for
one with Alain Delon (perhaps the most
beautiful actor in history, e.g. PURPLE
NOON, ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, THE LEOPARD,
LE SAMOURAI). That's pretty much the story,
but who cares? Antonioni's compositions,
staging and direction are immaculate,
and his use of the architecture of 1962
Rome is integral to the narrative, in
its own way as profound as John Ford's
use of Monument Valley in his Westerns.
Per their custom, Criterion offers lots
of extras; in addition to the newly restored
high definition transfer, there's audio
commentary from Richard Pena, program
director at the Film Society of Lincoln
Center; an excellent hour-long documentary
on the director's life and career, MICHELANGELO
ANTONIONI: THE EYE THAT CHANGED CINEMA,
a perfect introduction to the Maestro's
films (and something I wish I saw years
ago); ELEMENTS OF LANDSCAPE, a 22-minute
documentary that specifically covers Antonioni
and L'ECLISSE; and a 32 page booklet with
essays by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Gilberto
Perez, and excerpts from Antonioni's own
writings.
2004
AWARD MOVIES ON DVD : Most of
the 2004 Oscar and NBR award-winning films
are starting to come out on DVD, so it's
a good time to catchup on any missed titles.
Alexander Payne's SIDEWAYS (Fox
Video) was last year's sleeper,
a picaresque tale about two pals (Paul
Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church) on a
road trip to California wine trip for
one week before Church;s wedding. They
meet lovely Virginia Madsen and Sandra
Oh, and move through a series of adventures
and, at least in the case of Giamatti,
lessons learned. Payne and co-writer Jim
Taylor (this time adapting Rex Pickett's
novel) have hit home runs with every film
they've made (CITIZEN RUTH, ELECTION,
ABOUT SCHMIDT); SIDEWAYS fulfills their
earlier promise in a most spectacular
way. The NBR named it one of the year's
top ten best, and bestowed awards to Payne
and Taylor for Best Adapted Screenplay
(so did the Academy) and to Church for
Best Supporting Actor.
The
beauty of the Fox DVD is the audio commentary
by Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti.
It is simply worth the price of admission,
an hilarious stream of consciousness dialogue
that is laugh out loud funny. Church even
mentions the question and answer session
from the film's NBR screening.
The disc includes a behind-the-scenes
featurette and seven deleted scenes with
explanations from the director on their
absence from the film.
BEING
JULIA (SPE) should have had
a much wider audience. It is an absolute
treat, with Annette Bening's greatest
performance as the reigning stage star
of 1938 London. The NBR gave Bening their
Best Actress Award and – while taking
nothing away from Hilary Swank –
she deserved it. Her British accent is
impeccable, and within moments you are
completely in her thrall. The great Hungarian
director Istvan Szabo (the vastly underseen
SUNSHINE with Ralph Fiennes) does a bang-up
job from a screenplay by Ronald Harwood
(THE PIANIST, THE DRESSER), in turn loosely
adapted by Somerset Maugham's novella
Theatre, getting great performances not
only from Bening but from Jeremy Irons
as her understanding husband, Shaun Evans
as her lover, Lucy Punch as her youthful
competitor, and Juliet Stevenson as her
personal assistant. Incredibly, considering
the elegant production design and exquisite
period detail, all of the film's interiors
were made in Budapest. BEING JULIA actually
approaches the greatness of ALL ABOUT
EVE in its devastating portrayal of the
theatrical life, with Bening deliciously
wicked in the uproarious climax of the
film. The audio commentary has Szabo,
Jeremy Irons and Annette Bening interviewing
each other, and makes for a fascinating
exploration of the acting craft, essential
listening for aspiring actors.
Powerful,
uncompromising, painfully realistic, emotionally
brutal – Mike Leigh's brilliant
VERA DRAKE (New
Line) is a staggering viewing
experience. Set in 1950 post-war London,
it concerns a working class family, the
Drakes, Mum Vera, Dad, a grown son and
a daughter of marrying age. They're everyday
people, except for Mum's secret –
she helps young girls who find themselves
in the family way. Mike Leigh doesn't
concern himself with the moral issues
surrounding abortion; he simply tells
the story of this seemingly simple but
ultimately complex woman. In the title
role, Imelda Staunton offers one of the
most dazzling pieces of film acting I've
ever seen – in one shot alone, she
goes through every emotion from A to Z
without saying a word. It is a bravura
performance that earned her an Academy
Award nomination for Best Actress, and
Leigh a nod for Best Director. Indeed,
VERA DRAKE is a perfectly directed motion
picture, and it handily made the NBR's
Top Ten Best list.
Another
NBR Top Ten pick, HOTEL RWANDA
(MGM) also has great dramatic
impact, with a keystone performance from
Oscar-nominated Don Cheadle in a true
story about the 1994 Rwanda conflict,
in which a hotel manager struggled to
save 1,200 people from genocide. HOTEL
RWANDA has been called by many critics
an inspirational film, and it is certainly
that, directed with great conviction by
Terry George, whose directorial debut,
SOME MOTHER'S SON (1996), dealing with
about the food strikes in Northern Ireland
prisons, is one of the best neglected
films of the last decade. George also
collaborated with director Jim Sheridan
on the scripts for IN THE NAME OF THE
FATHER (1993) and THE BOXER (1997), but
with HOTEL RWANDA he really comes into
his own as a compelling filmmaker. MGM's
extras include audio commentary by Terry
George and the real-life subject of the
film, Paul Rusesabagina, with selected
scene commentary by Don Cheadle and musician
Wyclef Jean; plus two documentaries.
MIAMI
VICE (Universal) : I'm still
digging Warners' Special Edition of Michael
Mann's HEAT last month, so I was thrilled
to check out this new release of the complete
first season of MIAMI VICE, executive
produced by Mann. It was a breakthrough
series, earning ten Emmy nominations in
its first season, and today it not only
maintains its entertainment value, but
it's a veritable Eighties time capsule,
with Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas
as Detectives Crockett and Tubbs with
all the attendant clothes, cars and music
(including theme composer Jan Hammer and
80's greats Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel,
The Police and INXS among many others).
All 22 episodes from September 1984 through
May 1985 are presented, and besides Mann's
very visible influence, take a gander
at some of the guest stars who populate
these shows – Jimmy Smits, Pam Grier,
Suzy Amis, Ed O'Neill, Miguel Pinero,
Joe Dallesandro, Dennis Farina, Dan Hedaya,
John Panlkow, Michael Madsen, Burt Young,
Giancarlo Esposito, Eric Bogosian, Joan
Chen, Keye Luke, Joe Morton, Ving Rhames,
Mark Linn-Baker, Sylvia Miles, Esai Morales
and Bruce Willis. Bring on Season Two!
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