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Champion (1949)

A premier boxing film and Kirk Douglases big break, Champion is in the company of other Noir such as The Killers, Body and Soul, and The Set-Up. This story is about one man's rise to the top of the business and in his business the blood and corruption actually shows.

Douglas is Midge Kelly, a fiery nobody who is trying to make ends meet with his crippled brother Connie (Arthur Kennedy). When work at a hot dog joint falls through Midge willingly takes some quick money sparring in the boxing ring. He's got guts, but no skill, so he thinks that's the end of his chances. Back to working at a diner it is and Midge has his eyes on the proprietor's daughter, but then he's forced into a shotgun wedding that he's not too fond about.

Fed up with this kind of life, he searches out a manager so he can begin the long hard odyssey to make a name for himself as a boxer. His faithful brother Connie sticks by his side as does his manager Tom Kelly. City after city, Midge keeps knocking them out rising up the ranks until he is called on to throw a match. It's all set, but in a brief instant, the reluctant slugger splits with the program. It's turning point that gets him in trouble with the big boys and yet makes him a media darling with the press. The opportunistic platinum blonde Grace Diamond (Marilyn Maxwell) realizes the tides are shifting and begins pursuing Midge.

It's at this crossroads that Midge's relationships begin to splinter since Diamond convinces him to take on the bigger fight manager Mr. Harris, who can help catapult him to the top. The one thing Midge always had going for him was his loyalty to brother and manager, and in the pursuit of "happiness" he lost both.

Connie returns to the home of his mother and pleads with Emma to come back with him. Their romance quietly builds as Midge's star continues to rise. His infidelity also ascends with it. His next object after diamond is the beautiful and more cultured Palmer Harris, who also happens to be the young wife of Jerome Harris. However, he soon ditches the genuinely lovestruck girl when Harris gives him a wad a money to lay off of her. That's the kind of man he's become, but at least he's Champion.

In one final effort he tries to patch things up with Connie and Emma following the death of his mother. A rematch with Johnny Dunne is coming up and Midge hints at retirement while also bringing Tommy back for one last hurrah. In rather predictable fashion the fight plays out as we expect and yet as with any good Noir their needs to be a little wrinkle and there is.

This film is by no means Citizen Kane, but in a sense it is Kirk Douglases version of it. I mean this in the sense that he got the opportunity to play a character following the mold of the American Dream. He rose from the depths of poverty to become champion of the world! And yet along the way he became a cold-blooded, money grubbing, scumbag who lost connection with all the people who actually cared about him. It's the inverted American Dream or a cautionary tale on the most archetypal level. He plays Midge with the same tenacity of some of his earlier roles where he balances cold-hearted corruption with a nevertheless infectious charm.

Something else it has is a Cain and Abel type complex much like Force of Evil. There are the two brothers at odds except instead of murder there's more of a self-destruct going on. In this respect Connie is far from the most important character, but he is an interesting character thanks to the earnestness of Arthur Kennedy.

Also, I find it particularly interesting in terms of the women in Midge's life. Thanks to posters I assumed Marilyn Maxwell was the main love interest, but in the film he's actually married to Ruth Roman's character almost the entire film and it seems to be Lola Albright's character who is the only one who actually loves him. It makes for an interesting dynamic, because these women are drifting in and out of his life. And he doesn't end up with any of them. That's the life of a Champion sometimes.

4/5 Stars

My Favorite Wife (1940)

This is a film that I arrived at by a rather roundabout route indeed. Let me explain. I genuinely loved Cary Grant and Irene Dunne's chemistry in The Awful Truth, but I wanted to watch My Favorite Wife before moving onto their final film together Penny Serenade. Time passed and I found two other films. First, Something's Got to Give which was Marilyn Monroe's final project that remained unfinished after her death. Only about 30 minutes was completed and it was scrapped and was reincarnated a year later as a Doris Day vehicle co-starring James Garner. Being a fan of Day and especially of the late-great Garner, I had to indulge in this romantic comedy.

All that is to say that the Monroe film and ultimately the Doris Day film were both based off this same basic plot. A man just recently gets married only to learn that his wife who has been missing for seven year is alive. He must figure out how to break it to his new wife, only to learn that she was shipwrecked on a tropical island with a strapping young man. After three renditions it certainly feels over-trod, but the beauty of each adaptation is that they only have this basic framework intact. A lot of the real juicy bits are filled out by the cast. Of course your stars change. Because James Garner is no Dean Martin is no Cary Grant. And the same goes for Monroe, Day, and Dunne. However, the same goes for the crotchety judge, the desk clerk at the hotel, the bookish shoe salesman who takes part in a deception, or even the friendly neighborhood insurance salesman.

It becomes a fun game of compare and contrast, but these different performances also free you up to watch these films on their own merit and enjoy that three times over. I have found myself to often be a proponent of characters over plot and this is another case of that.

Grant and Dunne are a lot of fun together once more even if I have seen these predicaments before, because Day and Garner are great to watch, but for different reasons. And of course all the locales and fashion trends changed a lot in two decades. Also, I will not pass judgment on who my favorite wife was out of the three and truth be told I saw them out of order (I usually pick the original). In this rendition the judge played by Granville Bates was a real scene stealer so I was sorry to discover he passed away the same year and had very few other roles. My only question is would this film have been propelled to greater status if Leo McCarey and be able to direct it? Also, I am nwo excited I finally feel clear to watch Penny Serenade and I might just have to go back and revisit The Awful Truth, because it has been a while.

3.5/5 Stars

The Apartment (1960) - Updated

What has always stood out to me about Billy Wilder's films and the writing behind them, you can almost always observe cynicism paired with wit. They are continually sharp, often funny, but they also are underlined by more serious topics altogether. This quality is what allowed him to make films as diverse as Double Indemnity and Some Like it Hot. I guess there's a subversion of the norm that sometimes is dark, sometimes is funny. His second pairing with Jack Lemmon in The Apartment seems to fall somewhere in between.

The legend is that this story formed in Wilder's mind after watching a Brief Encounter, about a tryst between an English man and woman. What interested him was a very small detail indeed. What type of person would allow his place to be the location of such a rendezvous. And in such a question came the inception of C.C. Baxter a man who unwittingly funny, but also pitiful as played by Lemmon.

He's a man trapped in the bureaucracy of a big New York company. He's fighting in this game of survival of the fittest and trying to get ahead the only way he knows how. Lend his flat out to higher ranking executives who are looking for a place to take their dates and have a good time. Baxter is somewhat of a hapless stooge though. He's far from shroud and his high ranking pals like him for it. He follows their requests. Does what they want. He's a perfect cog in their plan. He's one of them. Even Baxter's neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss and his landlady get the impression that he's a real high flyer since there's always music emanating from his suite and bottles piling up outside his door. But he lives the charade and spends many a frosty evening waiting for his customers clear out. It's certainly a sorry existence, but he doesn't mind at first since it pays off handsomely as he moves up the ranks.

One of the more personable employees in this mass of humanity is elevator gal Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacClaine), who is always friendly with Mr. Baxter since he is a true gentleman. However, she is also caught in an affair with top exec Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) and she is actually in love. It's a messy situation made even more complicated when Sheldrake asks Baxter for the use of his flat. He enthusiastically agrees, but he has no idea who else will be there. That's one of those painful moments of dramatic irony where our opportunistic nonetheless lovable protagonist gets hurt. Lemmon is good at playing the drama movingly and filling his scenes with organic humor (much like the late Robin Williams).

At this point C.C. Baxter becomes the general scape goat for his colleagues and even his neighbors. Everyone gives him a hard time for things he has not done or does not really deserve. Sheldrake leaves his wife and looks to solidify things with Fran, and this moment is paramount because Baxter finally mans up. He may have lost his job, but he got to finish the best game of gin rummy of his life.

I must admit the themes of The Apartment are not always my favorite. I am much more partial to Some Like it Hot or even The Odd Couple, but Lemmon makes the film for me. Whether he's straining spaghetti through a tennis racket or trying on his new suave business bowler for size, it's hard not to like him. Ray Walston, Fred MacMurray, and about every other character is a cad. Shirley Maclaine is pretty good, but then again she's never been the most captivating actress-wise.

When it's all said in done, this is not Wilder at his best, but teaming up with IAL Diamond elicited another classic vehicle with Jack Lemmon. Now shut up and deal!

4/5 Stars

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) - Updated

I'm not well versed in Spaghetti Westerns, but I certainly do not need someone to tell me that Sergio Leone's film is a sprawling epic. That's an understatement if there every was one. The cast, the score, the visuals. Everything about it fits together so marvelously. All the moving parts succeed in developing a majestic piece of cinema that really is awesome.

Recently I saw Tarantino's Django Unchained which of course pays homage to the Spaghetti Western, but it undoubtedly exhibits the Tarantino style. However, Leone's film lingers as well, but with Once Upon a Time in the West I didn't mind. The film after all has a cold open that lasts 13 minutes and most of it is spent staring at Jack Elam and Woody Strode. Except the way Leone captures it all I don't really mind. Whereas Tarantino's film felt like it was dawdling, Leone's film didn't seem to dawdle. It was just stylish in its makeup.  The pacing at times feels like a lazy Sunday afternoon underlined by tense dread of something to come. Then for a breath blip the trouble comes and just like that it's gone. Back to the status quo except this structure makes every killing and gunfight seem that more dynamic.

The main players are Claudia Cardinale, James Bronson, Jason Robards, and Henry Fonda. Cardinale of course is one of the icons of cinema, and here she feels like a wonderful embodiment of this woman who helps bring civility to this land. Whether it's simply her immense beauty or some emotion behind her eyes, it's hard not to watch her every movement. First, as she learns she is a window, next when she is introduced to the other main players, and finally when she see her dead's husband's dreams forming all around her.

James Bronson as the aloof, but deadly "Harmonica" has to be at his coolest. He hardly has to say anything because that ominous harmonica music is his calling card. Every time we hear it we know he's around and also his eyes are so expressive once more and Sergio Leone is not squeamish about lingering on his star's faces. In fact, that paired with landscapes is one of his signatures that helps define his wonderful style. The contrasts stands out and the interludes often lacking dialogue somehow help make his characters even cooler. They take on a air of mystery and in the case of "Harmonica" we only understand his vendetta near the very end. It all starts to make sense.

Robards is the outlaw Cheyenne, who is pinned with the murder of McBain's wife and children. A posse is after him and his gang, but he was actually pinned for the rap. He is put in the light of a scruffy anti-hero and Robards plays him rough around the edges, but most importantly with a heart. He's one of the few characters who seems to get Jill. He knows enough that none of the men around her are worthy of her, because she is a special class of woman in spite of what her past may say.

Perhaps the most striking of casting choices was Henry Fonda, because by now he was well along in his career and most certainly best known for his plain-speaking heroes. That's what makes Frank such a great character hero, because dressed in all black and armed with a revolver he guns someone down the first moment we see him. It's a shock and it sets the tone for the rest of the film. He goes on to turn on his sickly employer and continues to put pressure on Mrs. McBain to give up her land. It goes so far as taking advantage of her at her home. He's a monster, but the part is such the antithesis of the Henry Fonda we know, making it a stroke of genius.

At least for me, you soon forget about the dubbing of certain characters and just allow yourself to become fully engaged in the dynamic West as envisioned by Leone. After all since there isn't a whole lot a dialogue, in some scenes it loses its importance. It's often about the desolately depicted visuals. The wry smile on a face. The buzz of a pestering fly or the squeaking of a windmill. That's another thing. This film puts sound to use wonderfully. Whether it's the harmonica, Morricone's engaging score, or diegetic sounds. In fact, the score evolves and refrains in concordance with the pacing of the film. It can be ominous. It can be playful. And sometimes it's nonexistent.

When it all comes down to it. We get the final showdown between "Harmonica" and Frank, but the film is a lot larger than that. After all we have been following multiple characters. Jill finally sees the world around here coming to life and she has weathered the Wild West as an independent woman. As for Cheyenne he ends a tragic hero of sorts. There's no question, Leone's film and arguably his greatest film alongside The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, helps define a version of the West, with iconic characterizations placed up against striking pictorials. It's one of those film's despite the length, it never feels like a labor. A smile is constantly forming on my face, to mirror the visage of James Bronson. I really wish I could play a harmonica now. It's so ridiculously cool!

5/5 Stars

Frances Ha (2012)

"You look older but a lot less grown up"

People as diverse Buddy the Elf and Annie Hall all call New York their stomping ground and along with these iconic figures comes Frances Halladay. Her bubble does extend to France and California, but New York is really her home base. In Noah Baumbach's film we follow this enigma as her address constantly changes and she strives to follow her dream of becoming a professional dancer. We are allowed time to examine and analyze her in all sorts of situations, because plot usually gives way to various asides showcasing the free spirit who is Frances.

She worries about money, can't pay rent, wants to play fight with her best friend, and is a self-proclaimed "undateable." She acts like a five year old one moment and has an almost unknowing beauty about her.  In other words she's a real winner. We cannot help but fall in love with since she wins us over with her oddities from beginning to end. Her friend Sophie cannot stay mad with her forever either. It's just not possible. They have to make up.

 Frances settles down one final time after trying her time rather successfully at choreography and moving back to Washington Heights. There we get one last little nugget. We finally can chuckle knowingly about the title of this film. It's so Frances and it's perfect cherry on top of the sundae.

In the tradition of New York films, Baumbach's effort has a visual style that was probably meant to hearken back to the austere black & white of Woody Allen's Manhattan. In some sense it acts as another character altogether. Whether he is pandering to us or not, there is no doubt that I am a sucker for the cinematography and it made things just a little bit more magical.

Thankfully Greta Gerwig helped craft this script and in her character she found the perfect paradox. An individual so extremely quirky but still somehow believable in the same instance. Her foibles and pratfalls only help to solidify her character in our mind. The fact is that each of us probably knows some variation of Frances. Those individuals who dance to a different drum and give every single day that they live on this earth a certain degree of pizzazz. I speak for all the cautious rationally minded human beings out there. We need the Frances Ha's to make us laugh and to shake up life a bit.

4/5 Stars

Angel Face (1952)

Rumor has it that Howard Hughes was angry at Jean Simmons who had cut her hair short prior to filming as her contract was due to expire soon. But not to be outdone he told Otto Preminger the director would get a bonus if he could shoot the picture before Simmons was released. That he did and in the 20 day interim he gave us yet another stylish film-noir classic to follow in the footsteps of Laura and Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Robert Mitchum plays ambulance driver Frank Jessup who falls victim to the webs of young beauty Diane Treymayne who adores her superficial father, but nurses a life long grudge against her step-mother. She has it in for her arch nemesis and meanwhile strings Frank along, coaxing him to become his family's chauffeur. He loses sight of her other side and their budding romance means trouble for Frank's longtime relationship with the sensible Mary. She sees a better fit in one of Frank's ambulance coworkers, but he still wants her back.

Instead Diane and Frank get caught up in a trial for their lives after they are accused for a murder that Diane did indeed commit. But due to some wheeling and dealing their shrewd attorney gets them off. It's at this point that Angel Face takes an unsuspecting twist that ends up being intriguing. Could it be that the seductive Tremayne girl is actually remorseful for her actions? Is she a more nuanced femme fatale then would first be assumed? Her tryst with Frank is doomed and he is stuck because Mary no longer what's him, so of course they end up against each other once more. The slow buildup to the finale makes these last moments all the more shocking. Angel Face seems to be less of a poison than a slowly ticking time bomb just waiting to blow.

Frank was an unsuspecting lout, but then again maybe Diane is too. Jean Simmons is most often associated with civilized and demure beauties. A couple counterpoints or variations would be The Grass is Greener and this film. Playing against type proves to be as fruitful for her as it did for the likes of Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Tierney, Cary Grant, and Henry Fonda just to name a few. However, in a way Angel Face had a more complex femme fatale than I was expecting and that's to its credit. Still, I would never want to be tramped in her nightmarish world like Frank.

3.5/5 Stars

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Updated

Here is one of the rare occasions when novel and film are so closely connected in my mind that I cannot help love Harper Lee's initial work and its adaptation to the screen. Their both so timeless in their ways.

It's rather like visiting an old friend. It seemed like so long. I can hardly remember the last time I sat down with To Kill a Mockingbird the movie, or the book for that matter. And yet it rushes back so easily. The characters, the settings, the story. I can almost visualize the words on the page as the scenes take place on screen. It's a wonderful experience and I wish I could connect with something like this more often. But To Kill a Mockingbird is special to me, because I read it at a young age and really ate it up. Thanks to Peck's performance the story was just moving the second time around. It never ceases to be.

It struck me that I thoroughly enjoy Gregory Peck's iconic performance as Atticus Finch, because of Mary Badham. Finch is a stalwart father figure and that comes out in the ways he guides and leads his young daughter Scout through life. She has a very cut and dry view of the world not getting down by nuances or complexities. What Atticus does is model what it is to live life with other people pure and simple. He takes the complexities of life and simplifies them in terms his daughter can try to make sense of.

To a lesser extent that means telling his kids to leave the Radleys be and complementing the always ornery Mrs. Dubose. He is not prone to shows of bravado by acting his age instead of playing football and not gloating about his skill with a gun. He's too humble a man for that. He also does not fight back. He has more self-respect for himself and other people.

He attempts to instill this and other skills like tact in his kids, especially naive Scout. He gives her the eponymous metaphor that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, because they are a bird (supposedly) that brings only beauty and goodness into the world. And as he says, and I'm paraphrasing, you never understand someone else until you climb into their skin and walk around a bit. He delves into what empathy is and it's what allows him to feel sorry for the Ewells instead of wrath.

Atticus Finch is one of the special characters that I would actually use as a model. He makes me question my own actions and take on a role much like Scout. He's constantly reminding, constantly being patient, and modeling what it means to do what is right. All this is done without condescension, without lecturing. It's done out of love.

His greatest act is of course defending accused African-American man Tom Robinson, because after all without this central point there is no film or book before it. But rather than focus on the depiction of these African-American characters and rather they are objectionable or not, I would rather acknowledge that this was a simpler time with a lot of evil still left in the world (as there is now), so this film speaks to me because on a basic level it is a story of good in the midst of all this blind discrimination and hatred.

That simple truth still speaks to me even after over 50 years. The only adult cast member who is still with us now is Robert Duvall and he is well into his 80s. Gregory Peck with his bespectacled visage and his soothing yet commanding voice is gone. Brock Peters is no longer with us, nor are the many other lesser known figures. But their story and these characters they embodied remain as a testament to Harper Lee's original work.

It seems important to ask ourselves why would a man like Atticus do what he did? Why would he take that risk when no else would. He answers Scout in this straightforward manner, "If i didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again." He's a man who holds himself to a different standards.

5/5 Stars

Virgin Suicides (1999)

In her debut Sofia Coppola fashions the 1970s with a washout wistfulness that feels like a distant memory, lingering for a time. Leaving a few far away remembrances to eulogized and reminisced about.

Her film is about really two groups. There are the Lisbon girls who live with their militantly authoritarian parents and then the neighborhood boys who look on with awe. These girls are the attainable prize that all of these young men are entranced by. They are not besmirched or dirtied by the ways of the world, stuck in the ivory tower of their parent's home. It's almost as if they come out of a dream, so pure and in the same way provocative.

However, things get shaken up when the youngest daughter attempt to commit suicide and then in a free moment she jumps out of the window and meets death by the metal fence posts below. Red flags should be going up everywhere, but stubborn Mrs. Lisbon only becomes more stringent in her ways over time. She should be trusting her daughters, allowing them certain freedoms, but she only takes away more. And reluctant Mr. Lisbon does nothing to stop her. He just lets it be.

Only allowed to socialize at one dance under strict guidelines, the girls relish this opportunity and so do the boys. They finally get their chance with a different class of girl. But after the smitten Lux breaks curfew all the sisters lose all contact with the outside world. The iron gates go down and she never gets another moment with high school heartthrob Trip. On top of that their mother makes her burn all her records in another strict turn.

Lux defies her passively in any way possible as she and her sisters try and maintain contact with the boys on the outside. But there is a point for any person where this type of confinement, this type of prison gets to be too much. The girls reach the end of their rope and take the only way out they can see.

Oddly enough most of the boys have little personality, but the focus is the Lisbons and specifically their daughters. The Virgin Suicides was partly intriguing because it never seemed to take on some dramatic tone and it never felt all that personal. I felt so far away. As Carol King mournfully sang, "Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore. It would be so fine to see your face at my door. Doesn't help to know you're so far away." That's exactly what this film does. It doesn't allow us to get close and that aloofness lent itself to the intrigue we have in these girls. We're pulled into their story along with all these young boys.

3.5/5 Stars

Love & Mercy (2014)

It's a tough one. How do you do justice and even begin to scratch the surface of a living legend like Brian Wilson? His songs have brought joy to countless millions and numerous generations of music lovers. And yet out of all the joy he gave people, his life was steeped in some much pain and suffering. If anything became all too clear, it was the harsh reality of his life back then, but thankfully not now. At first I didn't understand the significance of the title (It's the lead track of one of his albums back in 1988), but the words it hoists up are so perfect in describing his character.

I must say that I was a little skeptical of two actors playing Wilson. For those who don't know Paul Dano plays a young Wilson in the '60s during his creative peak and familial turmoil. Then John Cusack picks his portrayal up in the '80s when a messed up Wilson is being controlled by his quack psychiatrist Eugene Landi. They see like two starkly different touch points, displaying two seemingly very different actors. Again how could a director, in this case Bill Pohlad find cohesion out of this narrative chaos. But it works and ironically that's exactly what Brian Wilson did in his lifetime. That's why he was such a mastermind.

As a young man his father abused him, hounded him. He suffered panic attacks, stopped touring, and embarked on some of the greatest musical Odysseys anyone could ever hoped to imagine.  We are thrown headlong into his genius during the Pet Sounds and Smile sessions. It might be a reenactment, but it feels like I am watching an artist at work. He's on a different level and it makes me appreciate each one of his songs even more. On a side note I recently saw the documentary The Wrecking Crew about the famed group of session musicians. And while they brought the skill in their craft, Wilson did truly bring artistic genius that was unique to him. That's what in many ways caused a riff between him and band mate Mike Love.

We are tossed back and forth from past to past as Wilson meets cars saleswoman Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks) and embarks a new journey as the manipulative Landi continues to drag him deeper and deeper into hell. In fact, sometimes it's hard to imagine that this is the same Wilson and that is helped by Cusack. He is jumpy, helpless, muted, almost in a haze. But in him you can see there is an immense vulnerability and capacity for love. That's what Melinda sees as the layers get peeled back and that's why it tears her apart seeing Brian suffer so.

As it turns out Brian Wilson's mind is not only a place of musical creation, but of fear, pain, and confusion. He stuck between an antagonistic father and Landi manipulating his presence. Whether it was the abuse, the drugs, the or hallucinations, or a little bit of each, his story is one with a happy ending and the film plays out that way. Isn't it fitting that his immortal tune "Wouldn't It Be Nice" closes the gates on this chapter of his story. It certainly is not over, but it is still going, forever hopeful, and continuing to soar ever higher on a wave of positivity.

His genius astounds and now his resilience amazes me. He finally has found the Love & Mercy he deserved. Thanks you Brian Wilson for gifting us such immortal tunes.

4/5 Stars