I'm not a carney so I don't speak with an insiders view of that world, but my family was in show business. My parents trooped with a variety of vaudeville, circus and carnival acts. My Dad was one of those magicians that the boss at the last carnival in this film said are a dime a dozen. He was close friends with well known mentalist Glen Falkenstein and helped him with information about stage mentalism from a vast array of books and portfolios that he owned. So I do come to this movie with a little bit of knowledge, a natural curiosity and a vivid memory of early times I've seen it.
Classified as a film noir because of the dark themes, it fits into that genre in an unusual way. There is no murder investigation, the crimes that are being committed are fraudulent but don't seem physically dangerous just mentally cruel. There is no private eye, police detective or amateur sleuth trying to solve a problem. Helen Walker fits the role of femme fatale but no one dies as a result of the machinations of Stanton Carlisle and her psychologist Lilith Ritter, so the label "fatale" would be a misnomer. Still, there is a crime element to the film and some of the darkest most unpleasant on consequences occur in the course of the story.
I mentioned in an earlier post that a woman I ran into at another screening was dismissive of this film, preferring the book and really diminishing Tyrone Power as the lead. I thought Power was excellent. He comes across as a sharp guy with good heart, who can talk himself and just about everyone else into something not so good. Joan Blondell appears in a second of my TCM Festival films, I'd seen her on Friday in "the Cincinnati Kid". Having packed a bucket load of 30s classics in her resume, she is a well known presence who is just aging out of the youthful roles she filled so often and is just right as the faded glamorous "Zeena", the fortune telling mentalist that Stan sidles up to and manages to get a valuable secret from.
The host of our screening was Eddie Muller, the founder of Noir City Film Festival in San Francisco. He was enthusiastically grim when he described this as maybe the bleakest film noir ever. I was surprised to see that when he asked who was seeing this for the first time, three quarters of the house raised their hands. I will forever remember the line "You know what a geek is, don't you". Although there is another five minutes in the film, to me, that is the exit line that summarizes the whole film.
I
left my friend Michael to head over to the Chinese IMAX Theater for the
screening of The French Connection on Saturday Night. This is another
of those seventies classics that were made in that ten year period when
the lunatics were in charge of the asylum. I'd watched "The Seven Ups"
just a couple of weeks ago, and while it is not a sequel to "The French
Connection" it sure feels like it. The Producer was the same for both
films, Roy Scheider stars and the gritty streets of New York are the
sets. Both films also feature smashing car chases.
The host for
our screening was again Alec Baldwin, and he would be interviewing
William Friedkin after the movie. I have admired a number of actors
through the years. I never joined any fan club and I'm not a twelve year
old Judy Garland singing to a picture of Clark Gable, but Gene Hackman
has always been my favorite star. He is an everyday type, who looks like
a guy you could run into in a boardroom, a back alley, or a grocery
store. This is the film that elevated him to star status. While he had
two Academy Award nominations behind him when cast in this movie, he was
not seen as a leading man. Friedkin explained how the studio and he
wanted a number of other actors before they settled on Hackman. It is
difficult for me to believe that they wanted Jackie Gleeson for the part
and that he did not get it because his previous movie had bombed. The
audience, Baldwin and Friedkin all seemed to enjoy making fun of
"Gigot". Paul Newman and Peter Boyle were also considered but Newman
would have used up most of the budget and Boyle was not really
interested after playing a similar personality in "Joe" a year before.
Friedkin
and Baldwin never sit down for their discussion. They stalk the
platform at the front of the stage and direct their questions and
answers all over the theater. Now I have heard William Friedkin on a
number of other programs over the years and I knew it would be an
interesting conversation. He is fearless in expressing his opinion and
he is also free with information. Baldwin would not have to do any
coaxing to get him going on a subject.
If anyone has read about
the making of "The French Connection", than you know that it was done
almost in a guerrilla style. The New York authorities and the corrupt
officials that worked in many of the departments wanted fees and
stipends and insurance bonds that would have crippled the film and were
largely being made up on the spot. There was one scene that a permit was
obtained for and it cost them $30,000. On a film budgeted at $1.5
million, you can see the cash draining away quickly. They decided on a
strategy of "better to ask forgiveness than permission' for the rest of
the movie, including the famous car chase. They sometimes had to outrun
the New York transit police when they were filming on the subways.
One
thing that was different about this guest appearance was that the
audience was invited to ask some questions as well and two microphones
were set up out on the right and left sides of the house. The first
question was a little misunderstood by the two hosts but it lead to an
interesting answer about preview screenings. The second question
concerned the sound design of the film and it was asked by TCM fan and
Academy award Nominee John Singleton, the director of "Boys in the
Hood". He stood in line to get to his question like everyone else and
Friedkin was more than happy to answer it and also give him a shout out
from the front of the crowd. The movie had started at nine, then
finished at eleven, but it was closer to twelve thirty when we finally
got out of there.
This was just a brief clip of the perspective I had and the energy that Friedkin brings to the experience.
This was just a brief clip of the perspective I had and the energy that Friedkin brings to the experience.
It
is a little hard for me to believe that I got a chance to see two,
that's right two Sean Connery films from the same great year, 1975, on
the same day of the TCMFF. I also was very confident when I heard this
was programmed that Michael would be joining me. He commented on a post I did on this movie a few years ago.
We are both fans of this film. The crowd was a little sparse for the
line up, although the theater did fill in quite a bit, so we decided to
move our location down closer to the front of the theater for this
presentation. We had to move over in the aisle we selected because some
of the seats were reserved, but we were dead square center for the
program.
Stuntman and coordinator Terry Leonard shared a lot of
stories about the making of the film. There was a nice Video Tribute to
Mr. Leonard right before he was introduced. I could not locate that, but
I did find this featurette on the TCM site that I thought I would share
here.
The
jump off the balcony that looks so spectacular in the opening
kidnapping scene turned out to be far more hazardous for the rider, Mr.
Leonard, than for the horse. It turned out that he did have a fracture
in his back as a result but it was not discovered until nearly a year
later.
The
subject of his work on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" also came up in the
conversation. Terry Leonard did the truck chase gag where Indy goes
under the truck he is chasing and then gets dragged by his whip as he
tries to get back into the truck. It is an amazing sequence and one of
the best known stunts from the days in which practical effects and
in-camera effects were still part of the film making business.
I
have a hard time understanding how this film was not nominated for the
Academy Award for screenplay. Maybe the story was crowed out by other
pictures that year, but if you hear the words being said by the
characters you will know that the script is sometimes poetic in the way
it portrays the conflicts of the characters. It was nominated by the
Writer's Guild for the year award that year. Look at this example:
"Raisuli:
Woman, I want you to understand this: I am not a barbarous man. I am a
scholar, and a leader to my people. I am not a barbarous man. These four
men have dishonored me. They have eaten from my trees, they have drunk
water from my wells; they have done all of these things to me, and they
have not even evoked my name to God in thankfulness. I am treated this
way because I make war upon the Europeans... You see the man at the
well, how he draws the water? When one bucket empties, the other fills.
It is so with the world: at present, you are full of power, but you're
spilling it wastefully, and Islam is lapping up the drops as they spill
from your bucket."
The final letter from the Raisuli to President
Roosevelt is also a moment of movie poetry and it contains the line that
provides the title for the film. I will share it with you at the bottom
of this post.
It was fortuitous that Michael and I moved down
from our previous seats in the theater, for as the interview with Terry
Leonard ended, the host pointed out that we were being joined for this
screening by the writer/director himself, John Milius. We turned to look
at where he might be seated and waving to the crowd, but we did not
have to look far, he was right behind us in the next row. This may have
been the coolest moment of the whole weekend for me. The applause and
ovation for him was thunderous and at the conclusion of the movie it was
repeated. I wanted very much to turn around and speak with him and
share my love of the movie, but I thought better of it. I'd seen the
documentary about him last year and I believe he has some medical
issues. He struggled a bit to stand when he was acknowledged, and since
he did not speak as part of the festival, I thought he might not be
able to deal with a crowd so I just held back and slapped my hands
together a bit harder so that the world would know my appreciation.
Coincidentally,
I wrote a post focusing on the performance of Brian Keith as President
Roosevelt for a blogathon back in February.This is my entry into the 31 days of Oscar Blogathon hosted by Paula's Cinema Club, Outspoken and Freckled and Once Upon a Screen.
It also means that this is the second time I've watched this movie in
the last two months, something that made me very happy. Just while I'm
thinking about it, "The Wind and the Lion also has my favorite score by
my favorite movie composer Jerry Goldsmith. You will find a note of
appreciation for Mr. Goldsmith's career at this link.
To
Theodore Roosevelt - you are like the Wind and I like the Lion. You
form the Tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the Ground is parched. I
roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a
difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like
the wind will never know yours. - Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the
Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates.
I
am by nature a fan of musicals. I grew up on a steady diet of MGM
classics and RKO backstage shows. In the 1960s, despite the collapse of
the studio system, four big musicals won the Academy Award for Best
Picture. Living on the left coast, my chances of seeing a stage musical
would be limited to High School productions, traveling versions of the
play or the movie version when it finally arrived. I had heard of 1776
but never saw a stage version. The first time I saw this film was on my
SelectTV channel, an over the air subscription service in the L.A. area
that predated widespread cable availability. I was not particularly
impressed and I did not think about it again until sometime in the early
part of the new millennia when a director's cut was available. I did
see that and I liked the film more but it did seem to be quite long. So
it was with some trepidation that I chose this film to see in the
Chinese Theater IMAX screening. Malcom X was my alternative and Spike
Lee was going to be there but there is not enough singing and dancing in
it for a Saturday Afternoon.
Once again, Ben
Mankiewicz was the host and he introduced two of the stars of the film
and the Tony Award winning director of the movie. Ken Howard played
Thomas Jefferson in the film and it was his 71st birthday on the day of
the screening. Our host waved to the wings and a cake with lighted
candles was produced and the near capacity crowd joined in a chorus of
"Happy Birthday". Unfortunately there was not enough cake for all of us.
William Daniels who is basically the lead in the play as John Adams,
was also present. It was interesting to note that he is a former
president of the Screen Actors Guild and that Howard is the current
President of SAG.
I suppose after being in this film and play, politics was in their
blood. They were friendly and recalled stories of being cast in the
original play on Broadway. There is an apocryphal story of the screening
of the film for President Nixon. The director claims that Nixon loved
the film but did not really like one number, "Cool Considerate Men" and
recommended to producer Jack Warner that it be cut. It subsequently was
and that accounts for the abbreviated version that stood as the
theatrical release and the eventual original home video version. This
presentation is tied in with a soon to be available Blu-ray release of
that directors cut of the movie.
The
film is beloved by many in the crowd. This was maybe the hottest day at
the Festival, and the theater was quite pleasant after standing in the
queue on front of the Chinese Theater. While waiting in line I spoke
with one woman who was very much looking forward to this screening and
another man turned around and was quite excited about the event. This
was a day that I'm sure patrons regret that the stand alone box office
and canopy were missing from the forecourt of the theater. The staff of
the Theater were passing out umbrellas to protect the crowd from the
brutality of the sun. Unfortunately the woman I spoke to was more brutal
than the sun. When I mentioned that I was looking forward to seeing
"Nightmare Alley" the next morning, she dismissed it with a comment
about how much better the book was and she rolled her eyes at my
admiring Tyronne Power in the lead role, ouch.
"1776" played well
on the big screen but it still felt drawn out at times. The music is
tuneful but none of it is particularly catchy, and the lyrics are often
more focused on character development than plot. "He Plays the Violin"
and "Molasses to Rum" are the exceptions, they are not show stoppers but
they do add humor and drama respectively. The climax of the film which
mimics John Trumbull's painting of "the Presentation of the Declaration
of Independence" has a fitting counterpoint score and will leave anyone
with some patriotism in their heart with a lump in their throat.
Early
on Saturday morning, but not too early, I drove down to Hollywood for
day Three of the Festival (although for me it was just the second day).
As soon as I saw that "The Man Who Would be King"
was scheduled in the program, I knew I would be there. This is one of
my personal favorite films. It arrived in 1975, along with a plethora of
other fantastic seventies classics. For my money, 1975 was the apex of
the second golden age of Hollywood, and films like this are a clear
demonstration that this is true.
Once again I stood in line and
chatted with other Festival goers about what amazing things they had
seen. Most of the people that I spoke with were still talking about the
Alec Baldwin interview of Dustin Hoffman, but a couple of people
mentioned "Don't Bet on Women". My fellow Southern California blogger
Michael appeared and we decided to stick to the location that we'd had
the day before. Once we were seated, introduction were made by the
Festival officials and we were joined by writer/critic and all around
nice guy Leonard Maltin as host for this event. I suppose that Maltin
and Baldwin were called upon so frequently during the festival because
the beloved Robert Osborne was unable to attend this year. Our host then
introduced the guest for the morning screening, Christopher Plummer.
I'd recently participated in a blogathon in which I wrote about two neglected supporting performances from 1975.
I wanted to kick myself for not including Plummer's marvelous
impression of Rudyard Kipling on that list. The make-up and hair
certainly added to the performance but Plummer's voice and the way he
carried his body as the traditional English gentleman who loved India
and wrote about it with such heart was the real strength of the
performance.
Mr.
Plummer discussed the tussles he had with John Huston over the wig that
had been made for him. According to his account, Huston was willing to
throw him off of the picture if he did not get it replaced with an
appropriately shaded alternative immediately. My favorite story that he
told however had to do with Sean Connery standing up for him and the
part he was playing. Apparently, executives from the studio were
questioning the inclusion of Kipling in the story at all. They seemed to
believe it distracted from the action and it sounded like there were
the usual studio notes suggesting that those sequences be cut. As
Plummer tells it, Sean Connery got in an elevator with the executive and
when the door closed, grabbed him by the throat, pushed him against the
wall and said "If you cut out Kipling, I'll walk off this picture and
you will never see me again." When the man who may have been the biggest
star in the world at the time starts to throw his weight around, people
listen. Plummer said that was the last anyone heard of that suggestion.
It
was very obvious that he was proud of the picture but Mr. Plummer did
have one reservation. He thought that the score from Maurice Jarre was
all wrong. He preferred the Ravi Shanker music that had originally been
planned. A great deal of indigenous music still makes it into the film,
but Plummer thought the bellicose theme music was an attempt to turn the
film into something more of an epic. I would respectfully disagree with
the star. The theme is needed to contrast the colonial trappings of the
English soldiers to the world that they immerse themselves in. The hymn
that Peachy and Danny sing is both traditionally English and military
based at the same time. Jarre mixes those themes into the score in a
number of spots to heighten the perceptions of the two hero/criminals.
Anyway,
there is a great deal of respect for the film shown by everyone in the
audience as well as the two gentleman speaking before the movie began.
Several years ago, the AFI sponsored "A Night at the Movies". This event
matched important personalities with a movie that they contributed to.
There was a ten or fifteen minute introduction by the film maker and
then the movie screened for an audience. The two years that this event
took place, a dozen films played simultaneously on different screens in
the Arclight theater complex. One of those years, I attended and I had
the pleasure of seeing Sean Connery introduce this film in the Cinerama
Dome. So now that i have heard from two of the three principle actors, I
want to know where Michael Caine is going to show up to speak on this
film so i can complete the trifecta.
It is a well known fact that I am a James Bond Fanatic. Since the time I could remember going to the movies, I have been going to James Bond films. The inclusion of one of the least appreciated and most unusual 007 movies in the Festival this year had me twitterpated immediately. Here's the rub though, I had not completely understood the options on the pass that I purchased. This is only the second time for me at the TCMFF, and it was the first where I bought a pass rather than simply purchasing an individual ticket. The Palace pass that I committed to gave me access to the screenings at the Egyptian, Theater, Poolside at the Roosevelt Hotel and at the Chinese Theater. Check that. The Chinese IMAX Theater. I did not realize until two days before the start of the event that the Chinese Multiplex screening were not covered by the pass. That meant that four of the films I had on my original plan would have to be crashed. I wasn't worried about the money, I was worried about getting locked out.
I said farewell for the day to my friend Michael, he was headed to the Hotel to pick up his Festival Souvenir Book and then over to see "Raiders of the Lost Ark". His plan was to go to the 9 pm screening of "Apollo 13" in the big house. While that is something I would love to have done, there was no way to manage it because I was absolutely going to see OHMSS, with special guest, 007 himself George Lazenby. Now here was my dilemma, how do I go to the screening of "The Invisible Man" that I had planned on, and still get into the Bond film when the other movie would let out just a few minutes before 007 was to begin? I decided I could not take a chance. Since I had to be in the Standby line, I wanted to get there early. So I did, two hours and fifteen minutes early to be exact. I had to stake out my spot more than an hour before they passed out the priority numbers that allow you to purchase a ticket should there be room. It wasn't that big of a deal, I spent the Summer of 1977 standing in two to three hour lines at the Chinese Theater every Friday, you know why. I was rewarded for my diligence with a coveted priority number.
I should have guessed that it would be my destiny to get in, as I was walking to the theater originally, I had a text message from my daughter informing me that the "SPECTRE" teaser was about to be released on-line. So how could I not have enough luck to get in? As I looked at the others in line, none of the Standby folks seemed to have a pass to any of the rest of the Festival. They all seem to have come for this one event only. One person said that there had been a screening of a Bond film at an earlier edition of the Festival and that it had not been well attended. That was had for me to believe but it gave me confidence that we would get in.
I was the first in the line and I marched right in when the called in the first group of ten, once in the theater, I was able to find a very satisfactory seat near the center about two thirds of the way back. Now I had been on the lookout for a couple of fellow bloggers at the Festival. These are people that I know on-line but have never met before. As I was getting comfortable in my seat, a couple came in and sat down next to me, and from the row behind us I heard a woman call out "Paula, is it OK if I come sit with you guys?" The woman standing next to me turned back and said "sure". I don't know a lot of people named Paula, in fact I know of only one, she runs a art house theater in Detroit and blogs at "Paula's Cinema Club". I'm not particularly shy so I just piped up and asked her, "You're Paula? any chance you are from Detroit?" Sure enough it was her and by accident we were seated next to each other. I introduced myself by name and mentioned that I was on her site occasionally and she was quite friendly. When she left to get concession items, I chatted with her husband Tim about the theater that they run, Cinema Detroit. He was very forthcoming with their story and I was very inquisitive. It had been my dream at one point to own my own revival theater and program it with classic and independent films, and they were doing that themselves. When Paula returned I mentioned that I would probably do some posts on the Festival and I would mention that I saw them. I gave her a card I'd made up for my blogs and she suddenly said, "Oh, 70srichard, I do know you." The card has the distinctive "Jaws" Masthead on it so she was able to put two and two together without the right input from me in the first place. Anyway, "Hey Paula".
Let's get to what brought us here in the first place, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", the first James Bond feature to star someone other than Sean Connery in the role of 007. I know several Bond fans out there who are quite disparaging of this entry in the series and they lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the novice film star George Lazenby. I have seen him described as "stiff" and "charisma free". I have never thought that. I do see some faults after all this was his first acting gig ever, but I thought he looked the part and carried it off reasonably well. He was also surrounded by a cast of actors who were professionals and gave him plenty of support. It also helps that he has one of the finest narrative plots of the whole film series. James Bond falls in love and improbably marries the girl that he saves in the first scenes in the movie. Tracy is played by the talented Diana Rigg, who I knew as Mrs. Peele in the Avengers TV show. Her talent allows some of the scenes between them to play much more believably.
TCM Host Ben Mankiewicz introduced and interviewed the only man to play James Bond a single time in the movies, Mr. George Lazenby.
I found this photo on http://thirtyhertzrumble.com/30007hz-2015-tcm-film-festival-post-mortem/ This guy had a better seat than I did
Both of these guys have a great sense of humor and Mr. Lazenby is past the point of worrying about being politically correct. He told some pretty sexist stories and some unflattering personal anecdotes but they were all done with great gusto and in the spirit of having fun, not of diminishing anyone. There were some extra details and side trips in his well known tale of how he came to be James Bond. He also provided a simpler version of why he walked away from the role as he did. It came down to some advice that simply predicted the days of Bond were numbered and it was better to get out before the crash. Mankiewicz suggested that it was some bad advice but Lazenby said it wasn't because he has had a very satisfying life ever since and he had no real regrets. It was also interesting to hear why Lazenby thought director Peter Hunt bailed on talking for the nine months of production to him after championing him for the role.Ben and George could probably have gone on for another hour given that they were having so much fun with each other and the audience, but eventually the movie had to begin.
I'm sure film lovers from all over know the feeling of excitement and bliss when a beloved moment arrives and it is as if Christmas morning is just starting. For me it was not the Gun-barrel crawl or the one reference to Lazenby being the new guy in the series. It comes right after that when John Barry's electronic based musical title theme kicks in and they are followed by those great horns. Those first notes got my heart racing and my memories stirring. I was ready for 007 to save the world again. I had two or three similar moments at the film festival last weekend, but this one was the first and it was well earned.
I don't know how anyone could not be a Steve McQueen fan. His laconic style was the epitome of cool back in the day. We lost him much too soon and his work as an actor is often overshadowed by his status as an icon. I remember seeing this film on television, probably on a Friday night, and watching it to the end and being hugely disappointed because of the climax of the film. Of course I was maybe twelve or thirteen at the time and the needs of an adolescent are not always the best way to service an adult drama (do you hear that contemporary Hollywood?).
After having sat through the tough and sad real life story of Lenny Bruce, my friend Michael and I queued up for a second helping of dingy drama, but this time in a much more romantic movie setting, the 1930s in New Orleans. This fictional story of an up and comer taking on "the man" at the top of the poker playing mountain, is filled with wonderful character actors, gritty sets and a jazz based score. Originally a Sam Peckinpah film, the producers replaced him with Norman Jewison and recast Tuesday Weld in the part originally to be played by Sharon Tate.
Even though we we near the end of the line to get into the film, we ended up in almost exactly the same seats we had had just a few minutes before. I'd not eaten anything that day so I went to the concession stand to get some popcorn. It was nice that I did because at the back of the line of the concession stand I had to move slightly forward to allow the featured guest to get into the theater. That's right, Ann Margaret brushed right by me while I waiting to get some corn and coke. She did move by quickly but you can see that she retains the glow of beauty that has made her a star for fifty years.
TCM Host Ben Mankiewicz interviewed Ann Margaret before the screening of the film and she was delightful. They had done a Club TCM Interview earlier in the day, so there were occasional references to events that they had discussed earlier but the overall effect was a positive one.
If you have not seen The Cincinnati Kid, let me recommend to you for the cool of Steve McQueen, the sensuality of Ann Margaret but especially for the seasoned wisdom of Edward G. Robinson. Robinson plays the top dog in the poker world, and he is appropriately confident, wary, and assured. Rip Torn is impossibly young in the movie and most of you won't recognize him. The perspective that time has given me on the movie made it a very worthwhile couple of hours.
The host of our screening was Eddie Muller, the founder of Noir City Film Festival in San Francisco. He was enthusiastically grim when he described this as maybe the bleakest film noir ever. I was surprised to see that when he asked who was seeing this for the first time, three quarters of the house raised their hands. I will forever remember the line "You know what a geek is, don't you". Although there is another five minutes in the film, to me, that is the exit line that summarizes the whole film.
