"Red Shoes" Combines Dance, Romance

One of the recognized all-time great movies, “The Red Shoes,” combines ballet, intrigue and romance.  A 35 mm print of this 1948 classic, restored by UCLA, is being shown at the Trylon micro-theater in Minneapolis.  This is reminiscent of the store front theater on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in the 60s that showed W.C. Fields and Marx Bros. movies long before the advent of VCRs and DVDs.  Historic films get the big screen showing at the Trylon.

“Jezebel” Movie Not Ms. Goddard’s Best Effort

Sunday school teachers probably need not rush out to buy DVDs of the low-budget 1953 biblical movie “The Sins of Jezebel” with an aging Paulette Goddard as Jezy and muscular George Nader as her lover.  Filmed on a shoestring by the poverty row Lippert Studio, this confusing yarn features opening and closing narratives by a professorial type who failed to enlighten this viewer.
I knew I was in good hands when the opening credits listed Sigmund Neufield as the producer who was famous at poverty row studio PRC for low budget  horse operas. 
Comedian Joe Besser, a later day Stooge, plays Nader’s sidekick.  Besser was also know as Stinky, Lou Costello’s sissy nemesis on the ‘50s Abbott and Costello half-hour syndicated TV show.  Besser was the uncle of Mrs. Prell in Spokane who I knew as a kid because her husband gave our Sunday school class a tour of the KGA (ABC) radio studios where he worked .
From what I concluded, Queen Jezebel was involved in extra marital hanky panky with the handsome army captain played by Nader and also plotted to have Nabob stoned to death.  But she may have been decent to her aged mother.  Who knows?  Others more schooled in ancient history may want to fill in the blanks.
This mess may have been filmed at the Corrigan Ranch and a Hollywood sound stage. 
Lippert Studios also made “Wild on the Beach” with Sonny and Cher and they managed to cheapen what was then a cheap genre, the beach movie.

Mamie Headlines 1960 College Spoof

Bypassing the recommended search committee protocol, a small college run by a bunch of zanies mistakenly hires a stripper named Tassles to head up its science department in the amusing 1960 Allied Artists Comedy “Sex Kittens Go to College”
Mamie Van Doren in her finest comedic role plays the erstwhile academic Dr. West  who demonstrates Einstein’s Theory of Relativity using a couple of pistols in a lecture that disturbs both faculty and students alike.
Producer, director and writer Albert Zugsmith has a filed day trampling on the sanctity of higher education which no doubt will delight  some viewers.  Country rocker Conway Twitty provides a musical tribute to Mamie who sings and dances,  Jackie Coogan from the Adams Family does a W.C. Fields imitation as the college benefactor Admiral McFortune.
The last reel of the film dithers into madness with strippers and Louis Nye in a fire engine chase scene that bears no relation to the slim plot.
The manufacturer of the MOD DVD is Desert Island Classics whose video transfer techniques leave a lot to be desired.  This is a movie everyone knows but have never seen.  Now I have it and am I better f or it?

"A Royal Affair" Finds Contemporary Issues

The age old struggle between enlightened progressives and religious reactionaries is dramatized in the new Danish film, “A Royal Affair,” about the King Christian VII, his physician and his young Queen Caroline in 1760.  The villains in this yarn are the prime minister Guldberg and the Dowager Queen, who plan a palace coup. The physician is the champion of the poor and downtrodden and steers the king to a progressive path, abolishing slavery.  The contemporary equivalent of the Dowager Queen and Guldberg would be McCain and Boehner. Ambassador Susan Rice would be the Queen.  Get caught up on history and see this movie now playing at the newly remodeled Uptown which is gorgeous with leather reclining seats and a much more.

Nazi Lifestyles, Two Film Noir

A Jewish German Israeli women who survived the Holocaust dies and leaves puzzling evidence that reveals an association with a high ranking Nazi official who hired the notorious Adolph Eichman.  The woman is a hoarder and left letters, photos and newspaper articles that reveal a  relationship with the German gentile family that continued after the war.
In the Israeli documentary “The Flat,” her grandson, Arnon Goldfinger, who produced and narrated the film, seeks to learn more about his grandparents lives in Germany and in Israel.  A generational conflict develops where Arnon is more determined to learn the truth while his mother is a reluctant participant and very tentative about finding the grave of her grandfather in the cemetery in Germany.
An expert is sought out to hypothesize on how two very different families of the intelligentsia established a lasting friendship despite the Holocaust, which Arnon cannot accept.  See this documentary playing now at the Edina Theater.

Somewhat related is the 1940 MGM all-star epic “Mortal Storm” where a family in Germany is torn asunder by the Aryan/  question.  James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan defend tolerance while Robert Young and Dan Dailey poetry fervent Nazi characters.
Two excellent film noir from the early 50s are on one disk, “Where Danger Lives” and “Tension,” from RKO and MGM respectively.  You would think that Robert Mitchum would have had enough of the crazy ladies but he’s back with Faith Domergue (Howard Hughes protégé) as the femme fatale in WDL.  Likewise, Audrey Totter is quite fetching in “Tension” and I understand why Hughes hired her for the Robert Ryan film noir about the boxer.  WDL is comparable to “Detour” and “DOA.”  Listen to some of the film critics commentary.  Audrey  Totter recalls that Marie Windsor said the movies are now “Film  noir” but  those who worked in them knew them as B movies.

Sunny Fall Days Bring Idaho Memories

I am having fall recollections.  Lake Pend Oreille (pond oray) in Northern Idaho about this time of year was when I went water skiing  with my high school buddy Roger Springer.  It was sunny but the water was cold because Pend Oreille is a huge lake.  I didn’t embarrass myself on the skis because I wanted to impress Roger and his folks.  In our little group, Roger was the only one with a car of his own --a ‘50 Chevy coupe and he would take us to the drive-ins (Rutherford XXX) and Moran Prairie where we would watch the DJ spin records at KNEW.   Jack Malone in recent years told me that Roger played honky tonk piano and I still am a fan of that music with an LP that I have from The Crescent by Thumbs Tubby.
About 10 years later in about mid-October, also at an Idaho lake, I went  fishing with my new landlords, the Martins, at Lucky Peak Reservoir where it was cold and we didn’t catch any fish.  A month later the Martins decided to get out of the boarding house business and I moved down the street with Mrs. Cook & Co.
Also, in late fall in Idaho I went hunting with the Statesman Outdoor Editor Ken Burrows.  Ken was a gentleman hunter and with a loaded gun he made me nervous.  We ventured into the wild in his 60s Rambler Classic.

"The President's Daughter" Details '20s Scandal

Before the Gov. Terminator-maid scandal, there was the equally infamous and Republican senator/president Warren G. Harding and the secretary/poet Nan Britton, a small town girl who soon learned the ways of men during a six-year affair. 
Not a pretty story it is either as documented in her 1927 book, “The President’s Daughter” with photos of their love child Elizabeth Ann who was born in 1919 to Britton who assumed the name “Mrs. Edmund Christian,” although the whereabouts of the fictitious Mr. Christian were unknown.  What follows is Ms. Britton’s account of events, which the Harding family claimed were hard to prove:
Their affair was awash in sloppy endearments where the Prez was called “sweetheart” and Nan was “dearie” which I find amusing.
Harding floated several schemes to distance himself from ensuing events including his suggestion of an abortion, shuffling the little bundle of joy off to the Catholic Home and finally a palatable solution, providing about $400 a month to Nan’s sister and brother in law enabling  them to adopt little Elizabeth.  Nan was not without her resources and hired an attorney to make sure that the adoption papers named her as the child’s legal guardian.
The book is poorly organized so there is no summary of exactly what Nan got financially out of her sweetheart but apparently she faired well.  An unknown man delivered $800 in cash to her and on another occasion she received three $500 bills which wasn’t chump change in the early 1900s.  Nevertheless, she was strapped for cash.
Harding got Nan jobs as a secretary at U.S. Steel, the GOP during the convention where he was nominated president and at a university where she later enrolled as a student.  Also, she  traveled to Europe in the 1920s and it’s safe to assume that Harding gave her money for that because he feared exposure although he said he was in debt $50,000 at the time.  Harding told Nan that after Mrs. Harding, who was sickly,  died he would adopt little Elizabeth although he never said anything about marrying Nan.
Britton also makes reference to gossip circulating about Harding’s affair with Mrs. Arnold and readers would be well advised to get “Florence Harding” by Carl S. Anthony to learn more about the amorous president’s further adventures.  Ms. Britton wasn’t the only one left with a love child by Harding.
Nan was advised and helped by Tim Slade who was Secret Service and driver to the President, so obviously he could substantiate her story.  After Harding’s passing from a “broken heart,” Slade suggested that Nan petition the Harding family to establish a $50,000 trust fund for Elizabeth Ann but she was denied any claims to the Harding estate.
In her closing remarks, Britton quotes from Harding’s book, “Our Common Country”:  “It will not be the America we love that neglects the American mother and the American child.”   Harding did his bit to promote motherhood.

"The Candidate," politically relevant film

Politically progressive and handsome is the challenger for the Senate seat that Robert Redford portrays in the award winning 1972 movie “The Candidate,” which is relevant today as it was 40 years ago.  His thoughts on poverty, unemployment, housing and health care will resonate with many progressive voters today.  How this slipped buy me all these years is puzzling.  The Redford character is sucked into the spinning vortex of contemporary politics putting him at odds with his campaign managers and his wife who do not share his vision or values.  Depression and disorientation result as the movie unravels.  Father and son enjoy Hamm’s beer, from St. Paul, land of sky blue waters, in one scene.  Don Porter, last seen as Ann Southern’s boss in “Private Secretary” and as Sally Fields dad in “Gidget,” is his challenger.  This is the most riveting two hours of entertainment you are likely to find from Netflix who send plastic disks in the mail in paper wrappers to be chewed up in the Post Office equipment.  Go Netflix!

Fifties Sci-fi Movie Relevant Today

A space alien turns out the lights worldwide to get the attention of politicians to stop nuclear madness and not blow up the universe.  I love the message in this ‘50s sci-fi classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still” with Michael Rennie, Billy Gray and Patricia Neal form  TCF.  Like “The Man from Planet X,” aliens are abused, counter productive to our Minnesota Tourism Office’s fine efforts. Heroic efforts of the owner of the Heights Theater resulted in the showing last night of a 35 mm print of this film which is remarkable in the move to digital only.  The Heights will be showing the William Castle horror movie “The Tingler” which may not be available elsewhere.

Johnny Downs Featured in Two Films

In a scathing commentary on Hollywood, the Asian actor Philip Ahn confesses that he can make more money as a valet rather than an actor if he speaks pidgin rather than English.  This is part of a 1937 musical, “Something to Sing About,”  from poverty row studio Grand National featuring James Cagney who was involved in a stink with Warner Bros. at the time. The attempts of the major studios to use and abuse the talent is center stage in this provocative gem.  Go to www.cheezymovies.blogspot.com for more.

In another outrageous Hollywood stereotype, Franklin Pangborn is an over the top pansy who is mimicked by a radio studio employee in “High Hat” from Imperial Pictures.  Pangborn portrays a fussy opera singer in this ‘30s musical.

One of the better PRC horror movies from the 40s is “Mad Monster” with George Zucco as at the disgruntled college professor seeing revenge on his colleagues by creating a wolfman monster played by Glenn Strange.  Johnny Downs is the handsome hero newspaper reporter who saves the damsel in distress Anne Nagel in the last reel.  Lots of fun for your Halloween viewing.

Martha Tilton headlines PRC’s 1944 musical “Swing Hostess” where she plays the equivalent of a disk jockey.  Tlilton, a band singer of the ‘40s, did a live show at NBC in Burbank in the 60s with singer Morton Downey while I worked at KNBC/NBC news in ‘1963-64 as an editorial assist ant.

Johnny Downs is hilarious in drag as a college boy in “All American Co-ed” from Hal Roach United Artists in 1941.  It’s a brisk, well written yarn that must have inspired Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot” years lat

"Claudia" Movie Features Dorothy McGuire

Many young married woman including my mom during the war probably identified with the free spirit Claudia featured in books, movies and a play.  The 1943 Fox movie of the same name recently became available for the first time on DVD and may never have been seen on TV before.

Dorothy McGuire is outstanding as the vivacious, rambunctious Claudia.  Women’s movies seemed a lot more enticing in the 40s then they are now with characters that you knew.  “Claudia,” the movie, is much better than the book, thanks to McGuire and proceeds like a 40s radio soap opera from one event to the next.  There is an annoying bit about David misplacing his pipe cleaner and I can picture that little tool in my head because my dad had one.

Robert Young of “Father Knows Best” is David and not really the attractive character that Rose Franken wrote about in the book.  Cary Grant was the studio's first choice for David but was otherwise engaged.  Reginald Gardner is miscast as the visiting writer who steals a kiss from Claudia.  Alfred Newman’s background music is a bit overpowering in spots.  Otherwise, this is worth a view from Fox Archives.

A more contemporary telling of a similar story is the 60s “Barefoot in the Park” with Jane Fonda in a very “Claudia” kind of role.

"Look In Any Window" Features Paul Anka

“Look in Any Window” is a slow moving 1961 Allied Artists movie about suburban morality featuring teen idol Paul Anka, Ruth Roman, Jack Cassidy and Gigi Perreau.  The 40 minute interview on the DVD with a the director, a giggling, mumbling William Alland, is worthwhile. 

Alland was the producer of successful scifi horror movies at Universal-International in the 50s including “It Came From Outer Space.”  Before that he was a behind the scenes guy for Orson Welles on “Citizen Kane” at RKO and radio dramas.

Anka’s agent didn’t want him to make “Look in Any Window” but it went ahead and was completed in seven days.  Anka sings the title song.

The DVD includes an interview with Alland’s second wife Helen about his role as a “friendly” witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee.  In fact, Helen maintains that Alland was too friendly of a witness resulting in the end of their marriage and the family was shunned by the community.

Not much money was spent on wardrobe for “Look” with Anka and Roman in swim suits through much of the movie.   The Anka character jumps from rooftops in a mask which one suspects involved a stunt double.   The irony of Alland's career is that he started with “Citizen Kane” and ended with a  teen drive-in drama.  Anka recnetly appeared in the remake of "Shake Rattle and Rock," which originally was an American-International drive-in effort.

Footnote and Hercules Reviewed Here

A seriously dysfunctional Jewish family with academic credentials gets into a big stink over Talmud research in the 2011 film “Footnote” from Israel.  The angry dad in this movie views his son as a rival Talmud expert.  The U.S. version would feature father-son bond traders or pro-wrestlers.

With U.S. film choices meager at best, I needed to turn to foreign fare this week including “Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon” which kind of relates to “Footnote” in that the Talmud has Babylon references.  The movie stars muscle man Rock Stevens who is actually Peter Lupus, featured on the “Mission Impossible” TV show.  Here he is the strong man who frees the beautiful nymph slaves from the evil Babylon clutches.  Being an Italian movie from the 60s the dubbing into English is sloppy (dialogue is heard but the lips don’t move).  It is not known if Rock/Peter made any other movies where bulging biceps were a requisite.  One can only hope.  American International Pictures takes credit/blame for this Hercules.i

Where’s The Bathroom Dick Daring?

Guided by pure greed,  the talented writer Merle Miller in the 1960s thrust himself into the network television meat grinder with gay abandon.  That train wreck is chronicled in his 1964 book “Only You Dick Daring”  which I read in 1965 on the recommendation of Jim McLaughlin when we both were working the copy desk at the Idaho Evening Statesman.  Thank you Jim..

The show that Miller researched and marketed to devious United Artist and CBS executives was called “Calhoun” -- an hour-long drama featuring former child star Jackie Cooper as a county extension agent.  A pilot may have been filmed but the show was DOA.

The cast of evil characters in the drama about the drama is difficult to keep straight but Skippy Jim James Aubrey, CBS president at the time, was the chief gate keeper of American television cultural enhancement.  The premise that CBS would launch a show dealing with social justice and other challenging issues in the age of the Beverly Hillbillies is side splitting funny. 

Having worked eight years in the Agricultural Extension Service, I can testify that it’s all about brucellosis, creep feeding pigs and bloated cows for the agricultural agent.  As for the home economist, it’s how to avoid botulism while canning beans.  Unless the town gets wiped out by poisonous beans every week, I don’t see how you can sustain a series about an extension agent.  But Miller persevered in the face of insurmountable odds.

The jargonized dialogue of the TV executives as reported by Miller is hilarious and sounds like the script of the adults in “The Graduate.”  At one meeting, a United Artist executive observes:  “We’ve got to tell the audience where the bathroom is.”  Behind his back, the executives observed that Miller was having a nervous breakdown and Cooper may have been hiring other writers for the ill-fated show while professing his love of Miller’s script with several “God bless yous.” 

Miller got precious little money for his efforts except his well kept diary allowed him to write a hilarious book that no doubt was a best seller.  Unrelated in this volume are chapters on Miller returning to Iowa for his high school reunion and his writing a script for the TV movie “The American” about Ira Hayes, the Marine who may or may not have raised the flag at Iwo Jima in World War II.

Trouble in River City

MASON CITY, IOWA -- Anvil and trombone salesmen have left River City.  Marion no longer minds the books at the library and cute little Winthrop is a bald movie director now. 

But life goes on in Mason City where at the turn of the century it was such a sweet slice of Americana with lovable Midwest yokels that it inspired Meredith Wilson's "Music Man"  which gave us the song "You Ought to Give Ioway a Try.”

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright  (FLW) gave Iowa a try and may have struck a discordant note by designing an avant garde building for the city in 1910.  A few years later the locals slapped a plastic sign, “European Hotel,” on the front obscuring Wright’s good intentions.

The structure was designed in the shape of a strong box to house a hotel, bank and law office.  All hell broke loose  soon with the Great Depression.  The bank failed, the lawyers moved and the hotel faltered.  In the '30s, mayhem and anarchy American style were the new tradition .  Long before Mr. Jamie Dimon became banking’s poster boy, one sexy Mr. John Dillinger and his buddy Baby Face Nelson were the country’s recognized banking mavens. 

Heavily armed, Dillinger’s gang arrived in 1936 to make an unauthorized withdrawal from the First National Bank totaling $52,000, across the street from the FLW building.  Lawlessness was in the air and River City was no exception.

In the ‘30s  Iowa gave the FLW Prairie School architecture building an ill advised devastating remodel, knocking huge holes in walls for store front windows and destroying the arch shaped bank vault wall.  No one could recognize this eyesore as the great man’s vision. The bank and hotel were gone so it housed a cigar store, finance company, radio station and a flop house for derelict souls before being abandoned to the pigeons and rodents.  Naturally, this prompted a discussion of leveling the whole mess for a parking lot.

Iowans of stature came to  the rescue of the Wright building in the nick of time by getting state funds and private donations totaling more than $20 million to restore the building to Wright's vision, aided by his sketches.  The exotic boutique Historic Park Inn Hotel was reborn in 2011 and it is part of our architectural heritage. 

Meanwhile, Mason City is now “Music City”  honoring their native Meredith Wilson who is remembered for the “Mom, Apple Pie and Flag Waving” love poem to Midwest America, “The Music Man.”  River City is recreated at Music Man Square with wonderful photos from the Wilson career including the 1962 movie’s premier at Mason City’s Palace Theater.  That theater has been leveled.  You can’t save everything.)  Photos show Wilson’ during his stint on NBC Radio in the early ‘50s on “The Big Show” as Talullah Bankhead’s straight man.  Who can forget that as the love theme, “Till There Was You,”  which rings in my ears.

Skinheads and Indians in Cultural Clashes

There’s more that binds us to other cultures then we realize.  For instance take the plots of “This is England” and “Monsoon Wedding.”  Substitute Yiddish for Hindu and “Monsoon Wedding” becomes “Yonkers Wedding” with similar generational and cultural clashes.  Likewise, substitute Tea Party radicals for angry racist British Skinheads and “This is England” becomes “This is Wisconsin” as the working class struggles with with joblessness, poverty, lack of opportunities and education and  rampant capitalism.  Try this with other movie plots.  It’s fun.

"Barney's Version" is Engaging Cinema

For the past month I have been trolling Blockbuster for the title that would knock me on my ass.  I struck the mother load with “Barney’s Version,” a tour de force made for Paul Giamatti as the hapless Canadian television producer of the usual shlock. And how ironic that Dustin Hoffman is cast as his father but then Hoffman got his start in the iconic black comedy “The Graduate.”   So here’s another black comedy based on a a best seller from Mordecai Richler who gave us “The Apprenticeship of Dudey Kravitz” which I must see again.  Most memorable is the manic Jewish wedding scene with the bride Minnie Driver and the dubious groom Giamatti hoisted in the air on chairs which was done in “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”

Depp, Thompson: Compatible, Entertaining

The camaraderie and special relationship that existed between Johnny Depp and the late journalist Hunter S. Thompson is developed in documentaries on the DVD with the movie “Rum Diaries.”
This is a good reason to get the DVD from Netflix if you missed it at the theater.  I was a fan of Thompson’s work before Depp made Gonzo and I attended his lecture in St. Paul at St. Catherine’s University.  I only remember him refreshing himself from a bottle of scotch and showing up late.  I believe that Bill Murray was Thompson in  “Where the Buffalo Roam.”

“Rum Diaries” deals with the dark side of American politics and business and although it took many years to make, I feel it was worth the effort.  Depp is great at fleshing out renegade fringe characters and those that enjoyed “Ed Wood” will find “Rum Diaries” rewarding.  Since it’s filmed on the beaches of San Juan, it will could be a favorite winter movie.

NASCAR Dudes Target In German Movie

Dudes who avoided seeing “The Vow” will want to have a look at the 2008 German high testosterone movie “Fast Track: No Limits.”  The esteemed Lee Goldberg of Diagnosis Murder and Monk is the writer and producer.  (For more, go to www.cheezymovies.blogspot.com.)

This is not just your basic fast women, loose cars or babes, boobs and BMWs sidebar to a six pack of Grain Belt and Dominoes pizza.  No, it features some creative photography and street racing of the classic variety.  I am well versed in the genre having recently viewed “Trucking on the Track” with Tommy Kirk and “Fireball 500” with Fabian and Frankie Avalon.  In this contemporary version, BMWs that we associate with dotty suburbanites here are the mean machines of the street. 

Those who hope to see Angela Merkle topless on the streets of Berlin will be disappointed.  The lady has front burner issues with the bank mess in Spain.  Cut her some slack.

For maximum FT enjoyment pair it with Lou Arkoff’s “Jailbreaker” with underwear model Antonio Sabato Jr. reminding us of why our hearts went aflutter a few years back.  In a retread of a 60s American International epic, Sabato plays a James Dean high school greaser bad boy who Shannon Doherty can’t resist.  (She never showed good judgment in the Beverly Hills show as well.)

In a somewhat unrelated discovery, “The Bitch in Apt. 23” actually is wonderfully subversive with Dawson Vanderbeek as a has been teen heart throb doing commercials in Vietnam.  This ABC sitcom is worth another view.

Making Lemons Out of Lemonade

Lemons are life and everyone is a prisoner who suffers tremendous losses in the 2008 award-winning Israeli film “Lemon Tree” about contemporary life on the West Bank.

In the closing scene, the Israeli defense minister stares forlornly into the ugly wall that separates him from his Palestinian neighbor with the contested lemon grove.  “LIfe Behind The Wall” would have been a more appropriate title for this provocative film.  The plot is somewhat similar to that of “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” where protagonists are asked to  walk a mile in the other guy’s shoes.

Once the defense minister moved next to the lemon grove, the Palestinian woman whose family owned the grove must have known that nothing would be the same, one could conjecture.  Either you feel a sense of immense helplessness over this mess or you see the movie as a hopeful sign.  See the movie and decide for yourself.