Douglas Captures Flambouyant Liberace Character

Michael Douglas and Matt Damon were very brave to do “Behind the Candelabra,” an entertaining biopic of legendary gay performer Liberace.  Kudos go to the makeup artist or digital genius who transformed the actors from old to gay and back again.

Grotesque, vain and stupid best describe the characters in this melodrama.  Douglas plays Walter Lee Liberace and Damon is his young lover Scott who is not the brightest bulb.  Google Scott Thorson to update his sad story.

Noteworthy are the performances of Debbie Reynolds as Lee’s mom and Rob Lowe as the quack plastic surgeon and happy go lucky drug dispenser.  Reynolds does her Zsa Zsa imitation and Lowe is grotesquely transformed into a 70s nightmare.

For those who lack HBO, this is worth a view on DVD.  The costumes and sets are over the top and it captures the excesses of the era. 

Leonardo is Believable as J, Gatsby

The wealthiest Americans indifference to the poverty surrounding them is a theme in the new “Gatsby” at theaters now.  None of the characters are likable in the latest adaptation of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel “The Great Gatsby”
What is incredibly tacky is the music, with hip hop signaling the arrival of the African Americans and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” when affluent whites are on screen.
The excessive party scene is overkill and reminiscent of a similar scene in “Moulon Rouge,” also directed by Baz Luhrman, an Australian.
The History Theater here is performing “This Side of Paradise” which has a reference to Fitzgerald’s disillusion with Long Island which may explain Gatsby.
The actress playing Daisy Buchanan whispers and mumbles so I need to get the DVD with closed captions to decipher that mess.  She also has two moles on the side of her neck which look strangely like vampire bites but I don’t recall her in any clinches with Ian Sommerfield or Paul Westerly on “Vampire Diaries.”
The movie is also available in 3-D but I don’t know why.
Leonardo Decaprio look like a leading man in this film as opposed to the sad sacks he played in “The Aviator” and “J. Edgar.”  He is believable as J. Gatsby.  It’s all an illusion.

MILDRED PEARCE MEETS THE BEARDED LADY

In her late career circus movie “Berserk,” an aging Joan Crawford in skimpy attire loses the center ring spotlight to Golda Casimir who plays a singing, dancing bearded lady.  More than a five o’clock shadow, Ms. Casimir sports whiskers that jut out at a 90 degree angle.  Daniel Day Lewis should have been so lucky in Abe Lincoln.  This hilarious bit has to be seen to be believed.
Also unbelievable is the screen affair involving Ms. Crawford and Ty Hardin, a 20 something square jawed hunk who appears shirtless.  Needless to say with the voluptuous Diana Dors involved, both ladies compete for Mr. Hardin’s attention.  Ms. Dors is at her best and treats us to a knock down cat fight with other ladies in the circus troupe.  This inept mess involves murders and a crazed daughter of Crawford played by Judy Geeson.
Crawford recycles her tough broad role bit she is known for in “Johnny Guitar” and “Rain.”  This movie has something for everyone:  Crawford for fans of golden age movies, Hardin for the ladies, Dors for dad and Casimir for fans of the weird.

OLD FUNNY GIRL NOT ALL THAT FUNNY

For her cinematic revival, Barbra Streisand should have picked a circus venue rather  than a road trip with Seth Rogen in “Guilt Trip.”  Fortunately for us and Chevrolet the movie didn’t involve much slapstick with the Chevy Aveo in which they were entombed throughout.  But what was disturbing was the stereotypical Jewish mom role that Streisand recycles here.
Much of the movie is quite boring.  One wonders if Striesand had teamed up with hubby James Brolin for a remake of “Amityville Horror” would it have been more enjoyable?

Entertaining Topp Twins Combine Music and Comedy

The Topp Twins champion equal rights for gays, lesbians and the native New Zealand Maoris in the Topp Twins documentary available on DVD. 
The lesbian ladies take aim at the Kiwi middle class.  In this spot-on comedy bit they shun their quaint every day attire for over the top girlie garb and the dialogue goes something like this:
“You really need to feature gays in your parties and events because they bring so much color.”
“Oh yes, I agree.  They have color.”  (So gays are an entertainment option for straight upper middle class events.)
The triumphs and trials of the sisters are chronicled in this entertaining documentary.  Although the twins appeared in the U.S., I was not aware of their presence on the global stage until a couple of friends recommended the film.  This is definitely time well spent.

Hot Springs Cabins Haunted By Zarkin, Roy Rogers

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. -- A 40 plus year reunion for me was held this past week at the Historic Log Cabins in Hot Springs, S.D.  Last time I was here was September 1969 when I was driving from Boise to Minneapolis to start Fall Term at the University of Minnesota.
I  had dreams featuring Bob Berg and Mrs. Cook, people from my life in the 60s, while at the Roy Rogers cabin.  Photos of the Republic Studios cowboy great decorated the wall.
Last week our group of five enjoyed a one night stay in the historic cabins, only a few blocks from Evans Plunge which was not open when I wanted to go. 
Hot Springs also features a “historic” movie theater and given more time I would have seen “GI Joe” there.

"Bunny O'Hare is Stinko Romcom For Seniors

The much anticipated TV showing Friday of the 1971 American International romantic comedy “Bunny O’Hare” will be remembered for Academy award winning actress Bette Davis’ closing statement:  “”Eff ‘em.  Let’s go to Mexico.”  Thus did Ms. Davis comment to another Academy award winner and her co-star in “Catered Affair,” Ernest Borgnine.  The closing statement refers to her bank-robbing efforts on behalf of her selfish idiot adult children. 
In this later career effort, Davis portrays a widow who has lost her home to a heartless bank and Borgnine is a convicted robber.  She seeks revenge. Romance blooms with the senior citizens on the road robbing banks and on a motorcycle.
Esteemed stage actor Jack Cassidy appears in this inept face as a sexist bumbling cop who does a Maxwell Smart shtick.  All the leads interact with counter culture hippies who applaud any attempts to undermine capitalism.  No doubt this was a script device to draw the young to the drive-in for a romantic movie about wild senior citizens.
Fans of end-of-career movies of talented actors will either weep or snicker at this forgettable film.  It had been reported that Davis sued AIP to prevent the release of Bunny and AIP sued Davis.  It is rarely shown on TV and is not available on DVD or VHS.  I am no fan of romcoms so this may be as good as it gets for that genre, “Admission” included.
When asked about Joan Crawford in Republic’s “Johnny Guitar,” Ms. Davis was reported to comment, “I hear it’s a real stinker.”  Some will disagree but there can be little doubt that Crawford in “Trog” and Davis in Bunny are not reminiscent of their Golden Age days at Warner Bros. or RKO in the 1940s.
Fans of romantic bank robbing couples would be well advised to obtain the 1949 Monogram United Artist classic “Gun Crazy,” a title apropro to today’s headlines.  Peggy Cummins and John Dahl are the Bonnie and Clyde  heroes and spark sexuality in this riveting classic drama directed by Joseph Lewis.
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A SAD WEEK FOR FANS with the passing of Annette Funicello and Jonathan Winters.  Ms. Annette should have stayed on the beach with Frankie and the rest of the beach party gang making Mr. Avalon jealous by making eyes at John Ashley.  A photo of me at the beach where “Beach Blanket Bingo” was filmed appears on Facebook, that dysfunctional mess. 
Mr. Winters is best remember for his campy Grandma Maude Fricke routine with many suggestive double entendres on the Tonight Show with Jack Parr.  Many a night I stayed up for the Grandma.  Winters stole the show in the 60s black comedy “The Loved One” in dual roles.

Documentary is Real Life American Horror Story

In the recent documentary “Queen of Versailles,” the time share scheme king David Siegel rises to fabulous wealth in Florida then sinks into financial despair with the 2008 Wall Street implosion.  By the end of the film Siegel, 74,  is surrounded by dog poop on the floor and a house full of his small children by his third wife, a 40-something cartoonish grotesque who says she will have to see the documentary to find out how the family's fortunes were reversed.

 Siegel “made his own bed” and now is sleeping in the mess, dog poop and all.  At the start of the film he boasts that through illegal means he helped George W get elected president, but he can’t talk about it.

The centerpiece of this real life drama is an unfinished 90,000 square foot home he was building for the family in Orlando that became a white elephant when his financial house of cards fell apart.  Maybe it’s a homeless shelter now.

This is a real American story that will turn the stomachs of some viewers and coincidentally it takes place in Florida where recently a man in his bedroom was sucked into a 60 foot deep sink hole in Tampa.  The Siegels created their own sink hole.

Very Artsy "Anna Karenena" Not a Sizzling Success

Anna is “just a girl who can’t say no” and Count Vronsky is a boy “whose got what it takes and knows how to use it” in the new fun-filled version of “Anna Karenena.”  All the majesty of Imperial Russia dazzles before your eyeballs in scenes that resemble classic paintings.
A very middle aged Jude Law with receding hairline back to his tukus plays the politician husband.  (I didn’t get that is was Jude who was the husband until halfway through this two-hour movie.  He’s no longer the hottie we remember in “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”
The movie is entirely too long and the 40’s London Film version with Vivien Leigh and Ralph Richardson is more to the point:  Annie is a slut and the husband a self-centered ugly old politician who you hate.
Glad I didn’t spend $8 to see it at the theater.  A remake with Tina Fey and Chaning Tatum would be most welcome with Bela Lugosi digitalized as the husband.

"Admission" Movie Is Confusing, Too Long

“Admission” was previewed here last night starring Tina Fey, Paul Rudd and Lily Tomlin who has such a new look that it took me much of the movie to recognize her. Cosmetic surgery is great.
Public radio is interviewing Miss Fey now without making any critical comments on “Admission” which I thought was too long with a confusing plot about illegitimate births and college admission. 
The politics of decision-making by college admission officers in judging the worth of prospective students is disturbing and much too long.  The movie ends in confusion and boredom. 
Given the convoluted judgment calls on student admission at Princeton University, revealed here,  students would be well advised to consider Boise State University which has a better football team.
I think all of the actors in this movie would be well advised to seek better scripts in the future.

Deep Blue Sea, Bunny Lake From Britian

Yesterday I was reunited with the adult British film “The Deep Blue Sea” which I hadn’t seen since I was 15 in Spokane’s stately State Theater as a second feature with mom and dad.  One scene which has haunted me for years is when Vivien Leigh contemplates suicide by putting coins in a gas heater (which is a very British thing).  This London Film deals with adultery and also features Kenneth More.  Advertising for the movie advises “not suitable for children” although there was no nudity.  No doubt Julia Ormond created her Vivien look in “My Week with Marilyn” after seeing this film.

Also from Great Britain is the wonderfully twisted 1965 film noir “Bunny Lake is Missing” with Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley and Keir Dullea.  Almost from the start there is a sense of impending doom where a toddler disappears in a crowded bedlam like day school.   Subsequent scenes in the dark basement of  a doll shop and on city streets add to the nightmare.  British playwright and actor Noel Coward adds to the creepiness as the demented landlord in this Otto Preminger film.  Martita Hunt is great as the daffy head mistress of the school.  It’s a must see for film noir fans.  Cable TV subscribers can see it next month on TCM.

Kim Novak, Noel Coward Found Painting Joy

(Coward photo shown from Jamaica.)  Kim Novak couldn’t stop the tears when she spoke last night on TCM about her paintings that she hopes to display at a public showing soon.  Novak, 80, found tremendous pleasure in painting in the solitude of rural Oregon life which she shares with her husband, a veterinarian.  She had kind thoughts about Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn and Alfred Hitchcock.  She regrets that she wasn’t more assertive when it came to choosing movie scripts.  Her father was a cold fish and also bipolar as is she.  Her told her he loved her on the day he died.  I found the interview disturbing but worthwhile.
It helped to have seen the restored “Vertigo” the night before the Novak interview.
Another celebrity who found joy in painting was writer, actor Noel Coward whose paintings can be seen at his home and burial place, Firefly, near Ocho Rios, Jamaica, where I visited with friends in late February.  The Coward home was a rich experience that apparently only British visitors favor.  I was lucky to have seen the BBC documentary, Noel Coward in Jamaica, before I went on this tour. Some of his fabulous life is on display at Firefly including his paintings and photos which such theater greats as Gertrude Lawrence, Lottie Lenya and Lionel Bart.

"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.