Eight Documentaries

I have been watching a few documentaries over the past few months and thought I share an opinion or two. If yout are interested in rock and roll, New York City history, or baseball there is something here for you.

Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind

Directed by Ethan Coen this documentary is filled with incredible performance footage of “The Killer” rocking his life away. He was a powerhouse on the piano. On the flip side of the coin, there is plenty of interview footage, some disturbing when it came to his marriage to his 13-year cousin, Myra. It’s all straightforward and the music rocks. Streaming on Amazon.

If These Walls Could Sing

Directed by Mary McCartney, this documentary is a fascinating look at the long history of Abbey Road Studios whose many artists made history there including Mary’s dad and the other members of his band known as The Beatles (you may have heard of them). But there are many more than just the four lads from Liverpool who recorded there. Other artists included Elton John, Jimmy Page, Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black, John Williams and many more. Streaming on Disney.

Triangle Fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is one of the most famous and infamous in New York City history. 146 workers, 123 women and girls died in the fire. The youngest girls were 14. Most victims died of burns, asphyxiation, and the impact from jumping out of the 8th and 9th floor windows of the building. The company owners, Max Blanck and Issac Harris, their office on the 10th floor were quickly notified. They escaped by going up to the roof and jumping to the next building uncaring about their employees below. Most of the workers were poor Italian and Jewish immigrants working long hours for two dollars a day. Click on the link here to watch.

It Ain’t Over

Growing up I was a baseball fan, more specifically a Yankees fan. Mickey Mantle was my idol. It was the days of The Mick, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Hank Bauer, Bill “Moose” Skowron and Yogi Berra. “It Ain’t Over” is a loving documentary on one of the great ballplayers of his day. Ten World Series championships, three American League MVP Awards and eighteen All-Star appearances showed Yogi was one of the greatest players of his day and any other day. The film touches on his skills guiding pitchers during a game including Don Larsen’s perfect World Series game. Yogi knew batters better than most as both a player and later as a coach and manager. Oh yeah, his “Yogisms” and his unhappiness with the media, including the Yogi the Bear caricature, that many times overshadowed his abilities on the field and his feud with George Steinbrenner are all on display. Yogi was one of a kind, and as he once said, “if you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.” No one could. Streaming on Netflix and other services.

The Lynchpin of Bensonhurst

I unexpectedly came across this documentary yesterday and what caught my eye was the title. Having grown up in Bensonhurst I was interested. The film is a look at the life of the Carlo Gambino family hitman, Dominick Montiglio. The film covers his career as a member of a doo-wop singing group called The Four Directions who made a few minor records. From there he went to become a Vietnam War hero, to Gambino hitman to witness protection and finally becoming an artist. A long, strange, violent trip. Available on various platforms.

The Ballad of Greenwich Village

Interesting documentary praising the famous bohemian neighborhood, tracing its rebellious roots all the way back to the early 1800s. There are plenty of vintage photos, film clips of rallies, outdoor hootenannies, visits to famed landmarks and an array of the now famous who lived or hung out including Richie Havens, Norman Mailer, Peter, Paul and Mary, Tim Robbins and more. Available here!

Albert Brooks: Defending My Life

A comprehensive take on the brilliant career of one of the most inventive funnymen ever. Albert Brooks broke all the rules, created new ones and quickly became a regular return guest on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. Soon there were comedy albums and a series of some of the funniest, offbeat films (Modern Romance, Lost in America, Mother) he both acted and directed in recent history. Brooks’ talent as an actor expanded into serious dramas including “Taxi Driver”, “Out of Sight” and “Drive.” A must see. Available on HBO.

The Lost Weekend: A Love Story

Both a nostalgic and revelatory take on the John Lennon’s “lost weekend” with May Pang that lasted 18 months. The documentary is a visual treat and a moving journey offering a variety of personal photos and audio recordings. Most intriguing are the takes of Lennon’s reunions with his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney. Available on verious platforms.

Johnny Staccato

In the 1950s television, there was no one cooler than John Cassavetes’ as “Johnny Staccato.” Cool Jazz, hot women, and bad dudes. The setting is Greenwich Village.

“Peter Gunn,” a more successful show in the ratings, had more of a Hollywood glitz to it and less grit even though like “Johnny Staccato,” was set in New York’s Greenwich Village. Craig Stevens Peter Gunn is straight out of central casting, while Cassavetes Johnny Staccato looks more like the real deal. A streetwise dude who knew his way in the world.

My first exposure to John Cassavetes was in the low budget 1956 film “Crime in the Streets” directed by Don Siegel. Though he was too old (mid-twenties), he played the eighteen old leader of one of the street gangs. Sal Mineo, Mark Rydell, are fellow gang members and James Whitmore appeared as a social worker also starred. The following year, Cassavetes starred in Martin Ritt’s feature film directing debut, “Edge of the City.” The film is a tough and serious look at union corruption and racism on the docks of New York. Sidney Poitier and Jack Warden co-starred.

The following year, Cassavetes made his directing debut in one of the most influential independent films of the day. Though it died at the box office, to this day, “Shadows” remains a must see of the independent film movement.

That same year (1959) Cassavetes starred in “Johnny Staccato” for one season. Twenty-seven episodes before the network dropped it. Why? Probably because it was too hip for TV America. A stylish, moody, jazzy soundtrack, and noir like “Johnny Staccato” was not your standard TV fare of the day.

Some critics wrote the show off as a rip-off of “Peter Gunn”, which premiered the year before. Both are detectives and hang out in small New York jazz clubs of the day. However, besides the previously mentioned street grit, Cassavetes Johnny Staccato is a musician who plays in the club (Waldo’s) as part of the band. The scenes with the actor on the piano are highlights in themselves.   

Along with Cassavetes, the only other regular cast member was Eduardo Ciannelli as Waldo. Other well-known or soon to be well-known actors appeared. Among them, Mary Tyler Moore, Elisha Cook Jr., J. Pat O’Malley, Elizabeth Montgomery, Dean Stockwell, Harry Guardino, Charles McGraw, Michael Landon, Martin Landau and Gena Rowlands. 

If you are a fan of film noir or crime films/TV shows, “Johnny Staccato” will not disappoint. 

This is my contribution to CMBA’s “Big Stars on the Small Screen – In Support of National Classic Movie Day” Blogathon. Click here to see more excellent contributions.

Revisiting Bonnie and Clyde

“This here’s Miss Bonnie Parker and I’m Clyde Barrow. We rob Banks!” – Warren Beatty.

     I first saw Arthur Penn’s now iconic Bonnie and Clyde soon after its release in 1967. It was at a Manhattan theater (Loew’s 34th Street) and watching the film, you could tell the audience was unsure how to respond to what they saw on the screen. In the language of the sixties, it was mind blowing! However, the New York Times critic Bosley Crowther didn’t think so. When his scalding review came out, there was no doubt where he stood. He disliked the film immensely. He wrote, calling it in part, “a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cut-ups in Thoroughly Modern Millie.” In fairness, Crowther wasn’t the only critic of the day to knock the film. Warner Brothers faced with the negative reviews pulled the film from circulation.

      Then something happened. 

     A few critics wrote second reviews like Joe Morgenstern (Time magazine), reversing his first negative review. Pauline Kael praised the film highly from the beginning. Other critics came on board. Many, except for Bosley Crowther who wrote two additional articles in which he continued to attack the movie. Crowther represented the old guard. His days as a critic for the New York Times were now numbered. A new American Cinema was being born with the likes of The Graduate, Easy Rider and Bonnie and Clyde leading the way.

   The end of the 1920s brought in a new era in America. The Stock Market crashed, and The Great Depression began: Hoovervilles, Shanty Towns, Bread Lines, and the Dust Bowl became the norm in America. A new kind of outlaw also arrived, a criminal to some, an anti-hero of sorts to others. Men like John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, The Barker Gang, Alvin “Creepy” Karpis and Harry Pierpont were just a few of the better-known criminals. Then there was Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

  Though set in the 1930s, director Arthur Penn presented the film as a social statement on the violence erupting in the 1960s; most prominently in the ever-growing unpopular Vietnam War, the protest at home over the war and the civil rights movement. The film was shocking at the time. The director pitted the visual violence on screen against a gleeful soundtrack that included songs (Foggy Mountain Breakdown) by Flatt and Scruggs. Add to this, the then bold look at sex and Bonnie and Clyde became one of the most famous and infamous films of the decade.

   Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, in the film and apparently in real life, were not good bank robbers. They were an inept group of small-time outlaws who barely could stay one step ahead of the law. According to John Gruen in his excellent book Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde they were incompetent as criminals, and it was the news media that made them famous. Many of the bank robberies were a complete bust or resulted in little money. A well-known story is that Clyde chopped off one of his toes to get out of a work detail while in prison. He didn’t have to go to such lengths since a few days later; he was released. What Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were good at was killing people who got in their way.

  After Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) is released from prison, he meets Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway), a gum-chewing waitress who catches him attempting to steal her mother’s car. He impresses her with his ‘gun,’ and the bored Bonnie takes off with him. They fall in love, and become partners in crime, robbing banks and killing people. They meet up with the not too bright C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), a mechanic who is impressed with the daring duo and teams up with them as their getaway driver. One of the film’s most infamous and violent scenes happens after a botched bank robbery when a bank manager jumps on the running board of the gang’s getaway car and won’t get off until Clyde shoots him in the face. It was the kind of violence not seen on the movie screen before and unsettling for the audiences of the day. The killings in the film were not the nice clean, small bullet holes moviegoers were used to. Here we see blood splattering, bullets ripping into skin and bones. The people shot are visually in severe pain before they die. 

    The Barrow Gang is completed when they’re joined by Clyde’s brother, Buck (Gene Hackman) and his preacher’s daughter wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons). The cast also includes Gene Wilder in his first big screen role. Wilder plays Eugene Grizzard, who along with his girlfriend, Velma (Evans Evans) are taken hostage by the Barrow gang. In the beginning, they relax and are having a good time with the outlaws. In the backseat with Buck and Blanche all are having laughs. Wilder’s comedic skill goes into full display when Bonnie asked Velma how old she is and she reveals that she’s thirty-three. You can tell by the look on Wilder’s face this is news to him! No words are needed. It is a priceless comedic expression. Soon after they’re eating hamburgers and fries, still having a fun time, Clyde even jokingly telling the two they should join up with them. It all changes when Bonnie asked Eugene what he does for a living and he reveals he’s an undertaker. It’s a line that sends chills down Bonnie’s spine, an omen of their dire future. She demands Clyde pull over and dump Eugene and Velma out of the car. In these scenes, humor and death are delicately balanced, keeping the audience off kilter.

   For Faye Dunaway, it was a star-making role, and for Beatty, it moved him into the stratosphere of actors and producers. He became an icon of the new Hollywood. Bonnie Parker’s outfits influenced fashions of the day. Director Arthur Penn brought a French New Wave style that would impact other films over the years. Notably, early on, Bonnie and Clyde screenwriters Newman and Benton wanted French directors Francois Truffaut or Jean Luc Goddard as the director.

   There is not a weak performance in the cast: Beatty received a nomination for Best Actor, Dunaway for Best Actress, Estelle Parsons for Best Supporting Actress, and both Hackman and Pollard received a Best Supporting Actor nod. Arthur Penn and the screenwriters received nominations. The film was nominated for Best Picture: ten nominations in all with two wins, one for Estelle Parsons and one for Cinematography (Burnett Guffey). Bonnie and Clyde had no chance of winning Best Picture. Of the five films nominated, two represented the old Hollywood guard fighting to survive with Dr. Doolittle and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Besides Bonnie and Clyde, the New Hollywood was represented by The Graduate. In the middle, the fifth nominee and winner, In the Heat of the Night.

  The saddest part about the film’s legacy is not only how it presented a violent view of America in the 1960s, but sadly it forecast the future and where we are at today. Bonnie and Clyde does not pack the same cultural impact as it did back in 1967. Many films since have presented more bloody on-screen violence than Bonnie and Clyde. American fascination with violence has continued to increase, negating the impact of Penn’s classic. What remains though is a classic gangster film, a bright light in the Warner Brothers hierarchy of legendary screen gangster movies, a landmark in American cinema that helped open the door for Hollywood’s last classic period in film.

This is my contribution to CLASSIC MOVIE BLOG ASSOCIATIONS’ MOVIES ARE MURDER blogathon. Check out other contributions here!

Five Recent Documentaries

George Carlin’s American Dream

Judd Apatow’s two-part documentary on the iconic comedian is both serious and wickedly entertaining. His work still hits all the hot button issues we’re facing today: global warming, abortion, book banning, viruses, and more. A must see!

Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres

A fascinating look at the life and career of the legendary rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres. His in-depth interviews during the early years of Rolling Stone magazine (when it mattered) with legends like Jim Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and others are must-reads for anyone interested in rock and soul music or a career in journalism. Read Michael A. Gonzales’ excellent article linked here…https://www.soulhead.com/…/new-documentary-explores…/

Men at Lunch

An interesting documentary about one of the most iconic photographs ever made. The film explores the origin, the meaning, and the impact the photo has had over its long history. Eleven men perched high up on a steel girder taking a lunch break while working on the construction of a building today we know as 30 Rockefeller Center. Who was the photographer? Who are the construction workers? These are some of the questions asked and remain unknown. Except for two men, none have been identified. Many claims have been made but only two have been verified. That said the photograph says a lot about the history of New York City, its immigrants who worked the dangerous jobs, and the American dream.

78/52

A detailed, informative analysis and tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic, “Psycho.” The documentary’s focus is on the “shower scene” and its influence on future films and filmmakers. Though detailed at times, it’s accessible to all, funny at times, and always fascinating. Talking heads in Peter Bogdanovich, Stephen Rebello, Bret Easton Ellis, Marli Renfro, Jamie Lee Curtis, Osgood Perkins, and others.

Lenny Bruce Without Tears

In the 1950s, there was Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, George Burns and then there was Lenny Bruce. Though much of his material has lost some of its shock value and is dated due to changing pop values, Lenny Bruce remains a brilliant social critic, storyteller and legend. The film itself has a cinema verite style feel to it.

All are available on streaming services including HBO MAX and Kanopy.

My Article in The Dark Pages

My article on Barbara Stanwyck and Double Indemnity is one of many excellent noir topics in the year-end issue of The Dark Pages.

My Favorite Brunette

    

     As a kid growing up and falling in love with movies, Bob Hope was always on the TV screen, not just in old films but on TV specials that seemed to pop up all the time. Hope’s best period on the big screen began in the late 1930s with movies like The Cat and the Canary, The Ghost Breakers, and continued into the 1940s (Monsieur Beaucaire, The Princess and the Pirate, The Paleface and The Road to movies.). By the mid-1950s, his films were going downhill. In the 1960s, Hope’s films were hopeless (ouch!). Movies like Call Me Bawana, Eight on the Lam, I’ll Take Sweden, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number and A Global Affair were unfortunate affairs. But in that early golden period, Bob Hope, a master of timing, had many gems that still hold up.

A few years back, I wrote a post about Celluloid Comfort Food and one of the five films I mentioned was My Favorite Brunette. It’s always been a go-to film whether I was in some sort of funk or did not feel like watching anything new; I know the film by heart.

     Watching My Favorite Brunette and other Hope films, you can see the influence old ski nose had on Woody Allen. Bob Hope was Woody’s comic idol. You easily see this in many of Woody’s early films, the cowardly sperm in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex…, the live lobster scene in Annie Hall, and most of the scenes in Bananas. The mannerisms, the jokes, it’s all there.

     My Favorite Brunette is a marvelously funny take-off on the classic film noirs of the day. Adding a bit of noir authenticity is the inclusion of a cameo by Alan Ladd as tough guy detective Sam McCloud, an evil Peter Lorre, and Hope’s character telling the story in voice-over. Hope is baby photographer Ronnie Jackson, a wannabe Private Investigator. When we first meet Ronnie Jackson, he is on San Quentin’s death row awaiting execution for a murder he did not commit. The warden allows him to tell his story to a group of reporters.

     Portrait photographer Ronnie Jackson is having a tough time photographing Mrs. Fong’s baby. The child will not smile! Two hours and numerous shots later, Ronnie gets his perfect photo and promises to have the proofs ready tomorrow. Shortly afterward, Ronnie visits Sam McCloud whose office is next door to Jackson’s photography studio in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Jackson has been begging to McCloud to give him a chance at P.I. work. Ronnie wants to be a tough guy P.I. like Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, and even Alan Ladd. Jackson reveals his newly invented keyhole camera (he’s been kicked out of five hotels already trying it out), and his recently purchased gun. But tough guy McCloud says nothing doing. Ronnie can answer his phone whenever he is out on a case. For Ronnie, it’s better than nothing. When McCloud takes a quick trip to Chicago, he leaves Ronnie in charge to man the phone, unwittingly giving Ronnie a chance to play detective. That happens when our sultry femme fatale, who else but Dorothy Lamour, enters the detective’s office, mistaking Ronnie for P.I. tough guy McCloud.

     Her name is Baroness Carlotta Montay. She claims her invalid husband, really her uncle, Baron Montay has been kidnapped by some very dangerous men, including a weasel like henchman called Kismet, noir veteran Peter Lorre, who followed her to McCloud’s office and is peeking into the detective’s door. Carlotta begs Jackson for help. She gives our hero an address and a critically important map that she tells him to guard with his life. Ronnie hides the map in a paper cup dispenser in his photography studio and is soon on his way to his first P.I. case. He soon finds himself deeply involved in a convoluted plot involving mystery, murder, and mayhem. Hot on the trail, Ronnie’s detective work leads him down the rocky road to San Quentin and the Gas Chamber. As expected, Jackson is saved from execution thanks to Carlotta, McCloud and Mrs. Fong’s help. The biggest loser in the film is not the criminals, but Bing Crosby whose film ending walk on as the executioner leaves him disappointed, he cannot execute Bob.

This is my contribution to the Classic Movie Blog Association’s Laughter is the Best Medicine Blogathon. If you need more comic shots in the arm? Click here and here.

Half a Hero (1953)

This post is my contribtuion to the CMBA’s HIDDEN CLASSICS BLogathon. These are the forgotten gems, the underrated ones that deserve more attention. You can discover more “Hidden Classic Gem” by clicking on this link.

America in the early 1950s was on a high. The war was over; the boys were home, a baby boom was in full swing and the economy was growing. Many folks were leaving the city and heading out to the white picket fence world of the suburbs. In the suburbs, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, people were living what many thought was the American Dream. 

      Released in 1953, Half a Hero is a small low budget programmer that had nothing on its mind other than providing a few laughs. Written by Max Shulman (Rally ‘Round the Flag Boys!, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis) and directed Don Weis (I Love Melvin, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis), this was the kind of small film that television helped kill. But time has been good to this little film. Make no mistake, this is no lost masterpiece. What it is though is a reflection, or a mirror held up to a time and place in America that reveals the country’s mood and emerging middle class during this period. [1]

   That may seem like a lot of weight to place on a small lightweight programmer that stars comic Red Skelton, but it’s true. Skelton plays Ben Dobson, an unemployed writer who gets a job at a magazine where his new and frugal boss, Mr. Bascomb (Charles Dingle), approves of Ben and his wife, Martha (Jean Hagen), living in a small tenement building on the West Side of Manhattan. Bascomb hates the newfangled fad of people moving out to the suburbs or as he calls them, the slums of tomorrow, where they are living above their financial means, borrowing money on credit which he rails against claiming it will ruin the country.  

Ben starts off as a rewrite man, checking and correcting other writer’s work. His boss likes his work, but the frugal employer does not offer a raise. Meanwhile, Ben’s wife (Jean Hagen) informs hubby she is pregnant. She’s pushes for Ben to ask for an increase or quit! It works. Ben to his surprised is valued.

    With a family now, Jean hints their small apartment feels cramped. They need more space. She suggests they look for a house; where else but in the suburbs? Ben is against it, however, he reluctantly agrees to ‘look.’ He sets the amount they could afford to spend on a house and swears they cannot wavier from it. Naturally, the houses in the price range Ben was limiting their financial sights on are small and not what his wife wants. And just as naturally, she gets her way with a house costing more than Ben wanted.

   Expenses soon mount as bill after bill arrives. It seems never ending. Ben, by the way, has not told his boss about his move to the suburbs, so when the boss man informs Ben he wants him to write an Exposé on how suburbanites are living above their means, Ben who is unhappy with his living in the burbs, hopes that if he writes the article, to be called The Slums of Tomorrow, about the folks in his own hometown they will hate him and his family so much they will feel forced to move back to the city.

   Surprisingly, there are quite a few serious moments in a film that is basically a comedy. It manages to jump smoothly back and forth. Skelton, a comic handles it all well. Along with Jean Hagen (Singin’ in the Rain, The Asphalt Jungle) as his wife and Charles Dingle (Talk of the Town, My Favorite Brunette) as his cheap boss, the cast includes Mary Wickes (The Man Who Came to Dinner) and Frank Cady (Ace in the Hole) as potential buyers of their suburban home, King Donovan (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and Dorothy Patrick (Come to the Stable) as fellow suburbanites along with Kathleen Freeman, Burt Mustin and Polly Bergen who appears as herself singing the song Love.

       By 1953, when Half a Hero arrived in theaters, Red Skelton had already moved toward television. Sure there were more films, (Public Pigeon No, 1, The Great Diamond Robbery and some cameos in films like Susan Slept Here and Ocean’s 11) but more and more his work was on the tube. His hit television show began in 1951 and ran for an amazing twenty years.

Footnotes:

 HYPERLINK “https://d.docs.live.net/d1a7fc87681f81d0/Half%20a%20Hero.docx” \l “_ftnref1” [1] Nicholas Ray’s 1956 film, Bigger than Life, presents a darker view of the 1950s American suburban dream.

6 Films 6 Decades Blogathon

Here is my contribution to the National Classic Film Day Blogathon: 6 Films-6 Decades

Six favorite films, one from each decade beginning with the 1920s through 1970s. It was hard just picking one film. How do I choose between The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity? I picked one from each decade, but did I pick the right one? The answer is on the day I wrote this post, it was the right answer, but I keep asking myself how could I leave Double Indemnity off? How could I have chosen Mean Streets over The Godfather or The Last Picture Show? How could I have picked The Graduate over Rosemary’s Baby or The Manchurian Candidate? I’m sure if you call me tomorrow, I would come up with six different films and still be conflicted.

Find more contributions to this series by clicking here.

The Gold Rush

The Gold Rush was the first silent feature film I ever watched. Back in the days before streaming, before DVDs, before VHS, a few movies, silent films that had fallen into public domain were sold on 8mm film via Blackhawk Films. Most were shorts and comedies by the likes of Buster Keaton. Laurel and Hardy and others. The Gold Rush is my favorite of Chaplin’s feature films. For pure laughs, you cannot beat it. But there is more; iconic images such as the “dance of the dinner rolls,” the boiling and eating of one of his boots for dinner and waking up one cold morning after a fierce snowstorm to find his cabin teetering on the edge of a cliff. These images are at times poignant, sweet and always laugh out loud funny.

Angels With Dirty Faces

I love Warner Brothers gangster films. They were tougher, grittier, and more streetwise than say a MGM gangster film like “Johnny Eager.” I grew up on films like The Public Enemy, The Roaring Twenties and Angels with Dirty Faces, and to this day they remain favorites.

Michael Curtiz was one of Hollywood’s great house directors. The only other director who can match him for one great film after another Is Alfred Hitchcock. “Angels With Dirty Faces” brought James Cagney back to his gangster type roles of the past, as well as back to Warner Brothers after a contract dispute. He came back in style in one of the best gangster films of the classic era. But “Angels” is more than just a gangster flick, it’s Warner’s, known for its social commentary, giving us a dose of how fate can change the course of your life on a dime. How things turn out in life is sometimes just a matter of chance. Who can make it over the fence, getting away from the police, and who does not. This was sophisticated filmmaking dressed up as slick popular entertainment. Rocky’s last mile is brilliantly shot with high contrast lighting. His defiant attitude and then the final moments of his life as he “turns cowardly.” The filmmaker’s leave it ambiguous. Did Rocky really die a coward? Did he do it for the kids or did he do more for Father Jerry, his only real friend. We can only surmise and draw our own conclusions because the filmmakers aren’t telling.

The Maltese Falcon

  Humphrey Bogart has been one of my favorite actors ever since I first became a film lover. Whether on the right or wrong side of the law, he never lost that cynical anti-hero touch of a man who always went his own way and live by his own code, best expressed in this classic line: “When a man’s partner is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it. It doesn’t make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you’re supposed to do something about it.” There is much more to the story that investigating his partner’s death. There are lies, deceit, sex and betrayal. There is also a supporting cast of Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Elijah Cook Jr. all who would become seminal supporting players in noirs to come.

Rear Window

I’ve written about this film times before. It’s my favorite Hitchcock, and that is saying a lot, and one of my all-time favorites. Rear Window gets to the roots of movie watching, and still photography. For anyone who is an avid filmgoer, it is no great revelation that watching movies is an extension of voyeurism; after all, that’s what we do, we look into the lives of others. Observing, in a socially acceptable way, as opposed to peeping into the windows of neighbors or strangers. We are all, to an extent, curious to know what other people are doing, it’s human nature. However, most people can keep these voyeuristic tendencies limited to the socially accepted variety. Alfred Hitchcock was well aware of this trait in humans, and he suckers us into compliance right from the beginning with the casting of James Stewart. Who better than Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. Straight Lace to lure you into peeping in on your neighbors and making you think there is nothing weird about it. You may not like hearing it but yes, if you like watching movies you are a voyeur! Rear Window is also smart, funny, tense, meticulous and intriguing.

The Graduate

There are some films that are indelibly burned into your psyche for whatever reason. It may have to do with the heart of every audience member jumping into their throats the first time the shark comes out of the water in Jaws. It could be the blaring rock sound of The Ronettes singing, Be My Baby, on the soundtrack of  Mean Streets, or the discovery of a little know film called The Panic in Needle Park as you watch a then unknown actor named Al Pacino blow you away. There are certain films that are etched into your life and become a brick on the wall that helped build your love for movies. For me, The Graduate was one of those films. The source material, a novel by Charles Webb, was published in 1963 to little and no acclaim.

By 1967, a lot had changed in America; the anti-war movement had emerged, long hair, hippies, the love generation, an anti-establishment movement was growing. There was a feeling of it was us against them (in 1968 Jerry Rubin would make the phrase “Never trust anyone over 30” a rallying cry). Webb’s Benjamin Braddock did not live in that world. He seems to be a character on the cusp, a product of 1950s white picketed suburban America. Though unlike his 50s counterparts, he did not want to follow in his parents’ footsteps. Subsequently, he drifts… mostly into an affair with Mrs. Robinson.

Still, the film was revolutionary for its time. It came out at a time when American cinema was finding a new path; a new generation of filmmakers were just beginning to emerge. America’s old guard was on their last legs with their best days behind them. The look and style of the film was very much influenced by these factors.

Mean Streets

Every serious film lover sees a film that once in a while affects you so deeply that it changes your life. You look at the screen and you say to yourself, yes this is what it is all about. This is why I love movies; this is why I sit through so many crappy films searching for the one that moves me to high levels never reached before. “Mean Streets” is one of those films. It is not perfect. It is not Scorsese’s greatest film, it doesn’t have to be, it is what it is, a personal work by a young filmmaker that reflects a time and a place that connected with me deeply. “Mean Streets” does not have much of a plot; it focuses on Charlie Cappa a small time collector for his Uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), the local Don. Charlie also has taken personal responsibility for Johnny Boy (Robert DeNiro), an anarchistic simple-minded hothead who is in debt some two thousands to local loan sharks. Charlie’s relationship with Johnny Boy will lead to its inevitable violent ending. Johnny Boy’s disrespect to the local loan sharks like Michael (Richard Romanus) cannot be peacefully negotiated forever. While Charlie “protects” Johnny Boy, he will not go the distance, that is talk to his Uncle, who thinks Johnny Boy is a flake and dangerous, and is the only one who can ease the volatile situation with the loan sharks. The movie’s energy comes from the powerful acting, the cinéma vérité style filmmaking and Scorsese’s pioneering use of popular music. From the opening pounding beat of Ronnie Spector’s voice singing “Be My Baby” to the final bloody ending “Mean Streets” is one of the great rides in cinema. I love it.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

John Greco Author/Photographer

Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day

First Bloodis the first and best of the Rambo movies. Each sequel in the series became more simplistic and excessively militaristic. Based on David Morrell’s novel, First Blood has a dark somber tone and subtext completely missing in the other later works. The violence here is not exploitive but allows the viewers to enjoy the film on the surface as nothing more than an action/thriller. Howwever, there is a deeper level with something to say about returning war veterans and their problematic adjustment back to civilian life. The Vietnam veteran had the additional burden of facing a hostile homecoming. Unlike all previous veterans from earlier wars, the Vietnam veterans were not treated as heroes, instead they were met with disdain, spit upon, and even called baby killers.

Like many Vietnam Veteans, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has PTSD that went undetected. A former…

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Valentine’s Day – 1929

John Greco Author/Photographer

On Valentine’s Day in 1929, Al Capone allegedly sent a surprise gift to his Chicago North Side enemy Bugs Moran. Capone and Moran were in the middle of a gang war over territorial rights involving bootleg booze. On that romantic holiday, four men posing as police officers, entered Moran’s headquarters. They lined up seven of Moran’s thugs against a wall (Bugs wasn’t there) and emptied their machine guns into them. While it has never been completely proven that Capone was behind the massacre, he is generally credited with the bloody gift. Photo is from Roger Corman’s 1967 film, THE SAINT VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE.

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