The Bridge on the the River Kwai Comes to Blu-ray

It’s not often that a jaunty military tune is whistled loudly by British prisoners of war on their way to their new camp in the jungles, which were the killing fields of the war in the Pacific. The Bridge on the River Kwai, however, essentially launched a military barroom ditty to new heights of popularity, whistled and hummed by children and adults around the world: Colonel Bogie’s March. The unlikely entrance of these potential Japanese slave laborers is an amazing introduction to a film that’s not really about bridge building. Oh yes, the bridge gets built and destroyed, but the clash of wills between different ideologies and the very complex nature of the characters themselves is at the core of this stunning Academy award-winning film.

The legendary producer Sam Spiegel was determined to film this story since he first read about it in a French newspaper review of the novel by Pierre Boulle.  He read it like an Evelyn Wood graduate and immediately bought the rights to the film from the author and the publisher. Over the next three years, in order to achieve perfection of detail and authenticity of locale and  events, Spiegel traveled the world looking for locations, finding the right actors, writers, director, cinematographer and the vast company of craftsmen who were essential to the look and feel of the film. 

By 1956, director David Lean had helmed several of the better British movies of the late 1940s, including Brief Encounter, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations.  He had guided Katharine Hepburn, for her role in Summertime, filmed on location in Venice, in 1955.  Sam Spiegel was about to give him the job that would make him a world-famous and even more respected filmmaker.

To adapt Boulle’s book, Spiegel chose Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman; unfortunately, both had been hounded by the House Un-American Activities Committee in its witch hunt for Communists in Hollywood.  At its initial release, the writing credits were attributed to Pierre Boulle. Eventually, Wilson and Foreman were reinstated in the opening credits as the actual writers. 

The lead roles in the film were a British Colonel, a British commando, and an American who had escaped from the prisoner of war camp. Spiegel had no problems signing on Jack Hawkins and William Holden, but Alec Guinness was adamant about not wishing to appear in the film.  Spiegel made one last attempt to convince Guinness and invited him out to dinner, and by dessert Guinness was on board.  To round out the major casting, he chose Japanese silent film star Sessue Hayakawa for the pivotal role of the camp commandant given the task of getting the bridge completed. 

Hating the British, Hayakawa's Colonel Saito relishes the idea of breaking their spirit and humiliating their officers by requiring them to construct the bridge. Initially, Guinness's Colonel Nicholson refuses to cooperate and is punished severely. He changes course, though, with the horrible irony of the story being that he finds salvation for his troop’s morale by building a bridge that will last "600 years."  Nicholson doesn’t know that a group of commandos is on their way to destroy the bridge to cripple the Japanese supply line from Singapore to India.  A war film by genre, The Bridge on the River Kwai offers the audience more than it expects, a thought-provoking examination of bravery and heroism and the lessons to be learned.  

Columbia pictures is to be congratulated for putting this film in the collector’s edition which includes the original DVD and an new amazing Blu-ray disc. The DVD set is in the shape of a book, which contains the old DVD at the beginning and the Blu-ray at the end.  In between, there are photographs of posters, reproduced actual lobby cards, an excerpt from the original so

uvenir book in 1957, candid and publicity photographs from the set and very brief mini-profiles of the actors and director.  The older disc has interesting extras, including a short film on the making of the movie with comments from some of the associates who worked with David Lean.  There is also a chronological depiction of the actual building of the bridge; a student film about the real bridge narrated by William Holden, and comments by filmmaker John Milius.

This review was written by Cafe film critic Sazball.
Columbia Classics provided a review copy of this DVD to the Classic Film & TV Cafe.

The Avengers: Steed Has a Nightmare with "Too Many Christmas Trees"

Steed awakes from a Christmas nightmare.

Originally telecast in 1965, during Diana Rigg's first season, this Christmas episode of The Avengers opens with John Steed (Patrick Macnee) dreaming about a friend's murder at the hands of an unpleasant Santa Claus. When Steed later tells Mrs. Peel (Rigg) about his nightmare, she shows him a newspaper article about his friend--who died under mysterious circumstances in a hotel room.

On an apparent whim, Mrs. Peel invites Steed to accompany her to a weekend holiday gathering at the country estate of publisher Brandon Storey. As they approach the isolated mansion, Steed gets a strong feeling of deja vu. Once inside, he recognizes the sleigh full of presents in the hall, his outfit for the costume party, and even a guest he has never met--it's as if Steed's nightmare was coming true.

Although its plot doesn't rank with the best Avengers episodes, Too Many Christmas features all the elements that made this unique series a favorite among its many fans. Macnee and Rigg have tremendous chemistry, which is amazing considering that they had only filmed a few epsiodes at that point in their two-year run together. Their witty banter and knowing winks are Avengers trademarks. For example, when Mrs. Peel is opening Steed's Christmas cards, there's one signed: "Best wishes for the future, Cathy."

"Mrs. Gale...how nice of her to remember me," muses Steed, adding "What can she be doing in Fort Knox?"

Fans of the show know that Cathy Gale, played by Honor Blackman, was Steed's previous partner. Blackman had just starred in Goldfinger as Pussy Galore--who was involved in a scheme to devalue the gold stored at Fort Knox.


Steed tells Emma about his deja vu.

Perhaps unintentionally, the casting also features an inside joke. When Steed experiences deja vu as he and Mrs. Peel approach Brandon Storey's mansion, the scene is very reminiscent of the opening of the 1946 ghostly anthology Dead of Night. One of the stars of that British classic was Mervyn Johns, who plays Storey in Too Many Christmas Trees.

The Avengers often recycled its guest stars and Too Many Christmas Trees features several actors who appeared in other episodes: Robert James, Alex Scott, Barry Warren, and Edwin Richfield. Interestingly, many of these performers also appeared in horror pictures made by Hammer Films (for instance, Barry Warren was an aristocratic bloodsucker in the excellent Kiss of the Vampire). Director Roy Ward Baker, who helmed eight Avengers episodes in all, also worked for Hammer. Finally, Brian Clemens, who produced and wrote some of the finest Avengers outings, later wrote and directed Hammer's Kronos (aka Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter).

Another Avengers trademark was its offbeat sense of fashion. Rigg started out in black leather, but graduated to colorful jump suits in her second year. The show's costume designers also loved to put her in fanciful garb--in a Robin Hood outfit in A Sense of History, a spiked choker in A Touch of Brimstone, and playful Oliver Twist attire in Too Many Christmas Trees.

Of course, the two leads and the clever scripts are what make The Avengers a must-see series (especially during the Diana Rigg years). That alone makes this holiday episode a delightful hour for any classic TV fan.



Trivia Time - Part 62

Here's this week's Trivia Time....last week's questions were ALL answered! This week's questions are both a bit tougher and a bit easier, and Becks will have to figure out if there's a Flynn question or not, LOL!

Who Are We? In the 60s, we made three films together, two with the same director. One of us received an Oscar for one of these films. Who Are We?

Who Are We? We've appeared together 3 times, twice in the '60s and once in the '70s. In our first film together we worked with a legendary actress from the '30s, '40s, and '50s: Miriam Hopkins. Who Are We?

Who Am I? My film career began in my own country in 1920 and continued until my death in the late '70s. I came to America in the '30s and became an American citizen during World War II. My personal favorite of all of my movies was remade three times, the last time by a film company in India. Who Am I?

1. Name the two directors of the films mentioned by Who Are We? #1.

2. Name the 3 films and the co-stars mentioned by Who Are We #1.

3. As a classical music fan, I hate it when producers get the wrong people for movies dealing with classical music. But these two films got it right: Amadeus (1984) and Mahler (1974). Name the music supervisors for each film.

4. Comment: "They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Response: "I know. I'm the one who said it." Name the film and the stars.

5. How did Who Am I? die? Be specific.

6. This film starred two of Bette Davis's least favorite people. The cast also included Frank McHugh and Alan Hale. Name the film and the stars.

7. Name the favorite film referred to by Who Am I? and the first remake.

8. This "Christmas opera" was first run on NBC and became a yearly ritual for more than a decade. It was the first opera ever written for television in America. Name the opera, the composer, and the year it was first broadcast in color.

9. Name a Christmas classic which has Gladys Cooper and James Gleason in the supporting cast. Name the stars as well.

10. Jack Nicholson was given the script to this Christmas film and was very interested in it, but the director didn't learn that fact until later and the studio couldn't afford him anyway. The film was released just before Thanksgiving and became a surprise hit. By Christmas, the movie had been pulled from most theaters because it was thought to be "played out". After complaints were lodged, the film was brought back to play on select screens until after the first of the following year. Name the film and the director.

I'll Be Seeing You (1945)

I'll Be Seeing You (1945). Cast: Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotton, Tom Tully, Shirley Temple and Spring Byington.

Background: After the death of her parents, Mary supports herself by working as a secretary. One night, her boss invites her to dinner at his apartment, Mary accepts, believing that he is inviting her to a party--only to discover that she is the only guest.She is attacked by her drunken boss. While fighting off his advances, Mary accidentally pushes him to his death through an open window. After being convicted of manslaughter, she is sentenced to six years in prison.

The story begins when Mary Marshall, who is half way through her prison sentence, is given an eight-day leave pass for the Christmas holidays. Travelling by train, she meets Zachary Morgan. The two quickly become friends. Zachary has just been released from the hospital as he has been suffering from shell shock and has become a prisoner of his own mind. In hope to speed up his recovery, he prepares himself to getting back to his life. Attracted to Mary, he follows her to her stop and pretends that he is visiting his sister in the same town of Pine Hill. Mary invites Zachary to visit her at the home of her aunt and uncle. Romance soon develops for the two as they spend Christmas Day together and attend a dance on New Year's Eve. Both however have the problem of having to tell the other of their past. On their last day together, Mary's cousin Barbara unintentionally tells Zachary about Mary's situation and, in his is anger, he boards the train without saying goodbye to her. After telling her family goodbye, Mary travels back to prison to continue with her sentence. Will Zachary have enough confidence to overcome his disappointment?

I've always enjoyed the wonderful performance of both Ginger Rogers and Joseph Cotton. I hope you have the opportunity to view this wonderful romantic journey back to a different time.

Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an actress, dancer, and singer who performed in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century. During her career, she made a total of 73 films, and is best known for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner, in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. She also achieved great success in a variety of film roles, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940).

Joseph Cheshire Cotten (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994), was an actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He is associated with Orson Welles, leading to appearances in Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay, and The Third Man (1949). He was a star in his own right with films such as Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Love Letters (1945) and Portrait of Jennie (1948).

What are your holiday movie or TV traditions?

Like me, I suspect that many classic film and TV fans have holiday traditions linked to watching certain films and/or TV specials. When I was a teenager, a local TV station would broadcast Holiday Inn on Christmas morning. So, after my family opened presents, Mom would bake blueberry muffins and we'd all settle down for our annual "visit" with Bing and Fred.

When my wife and I were dating, we watched White Christmas on TV together. Though we had seen it separately many times, it really clicked with us that night. It has since become a Christmas Eve tradition (by the way, the White Christmas DVD features glorious color and comes highly recommended). Christmas Eve just wouldn't be the same without watching White Christmas...though, honestly, if we couldn't see it for some reason, I think we could almost reenact it scene for scene.

We also try to squeeze in The Bishop's Wife and Chrsitmas in Connecticut each December. That old reliable favorite, It's a Wonderful Life, has been been overexposed. But I still remember the emotional impact of my first viewing and if I'm channel-surfing when it's on, I often end up watching the rest of the movie.

Sometimes, a movie with no holiday connections, can become a seasonal tradition. For many years, my wife and I watched The Ghost and Mrs. Muir on New Year's Eve. There's nothing about New Year in the movie, but there is a magical, timeless quality which somehow made it a perfect way to close out the old year.

So, what are your holiday movie or TV traditions?

Dragonslayer: A Different Kind of Disney

Note the similarity to the Star Wars poster.

Dragonslayer is one of those films that disappointed me when I first saw it, but grew on me over the years. Perhaps, I expected a lighthearted fantasy (it was co-produced by Disney) and was totally unprepared for the grim, dark, medieval setting. If so, then that seems ironic now, for the film’s oppressive atmosphere has become one of its most endearing qualities for me.

The film opens with villagers from a faraway kingdom pleading with the great wizard Ulrich (Ralph Richardson) to destroy a disagreeable dragon. An unpleasant knight interrupts the proceedings and, questioning the old wizard’s skills, demands a test of magic. Surprisingly, Ulrich agrees and, in the process, dies unexpectedly. Galin (Peter MacNichol), his still-in-training apprentice, accepts the challenge of defeating the dragon.

Peter MacNichol as Galin

Galin’s confidence, and apparent initial success against the dragon, soon give way to doubt. In fact, doubt and change are the two prevalent themes in Dragonslayer. The king has so little confidence in his ability to defeat the dragon that he holds lotteries at the spring and autumn equinoxes to select virgin maids for sacrifice. Even some of the villagers who seek Ulrich’s aid doubt if he can truly help them.

Ulrich doesn’t doubt the power of magic, but he knows that times are changing. His wizardly contemporaries are gone and he feels his time is near. As one character says: “Magic, magicians…it’s all fading from the world.” There is a new age of enlightenment on the way (symbolized at the end by the sun’s emergence from behind the moon during an eclipse). Even then, though, as we learn in the final shot, there will be a place for magic.

I’ve probably made Dragonslayer sounds like a heavyhanded, symbolic film. In contrast, it’s a fantasy adventure at heart; Galin’s trek into the dragon’s lair is a tense, exciting sequence. The climax, with the winged fire-breathing creature swooping through the air, is enthralling if a bit brief. Indeed, the dragon in Dragonslayer remains an impressive creation (its horns reminding me somewhat of the demon in Night of the Demon).

Dragonslayer is by no means a great film, but it improves with repeated viewings—or has so for me anyway. It was among the first of many fantasy adventures made in the 1980s (e.g., Conan the Barbarian, Krull, Beastmaster, Red Sonja, etc.). I happen to think it’s the best.

Trivia Time - Part 61

Answers to the unanswered questions from TT 60:

3. Name at least two things these films have in common: Plymouth Adventure, Holiday Inn, and Miracle on 34th Street.

Answer: Each film had a "Thanksgiving" turkey dinner, and each had at least one Oscar win.

7. Name at least one thing the following films have in common: It Happened One Night, Devil Dogs of the Air, The Mortal Storm, and It's a Wonderful Life.

Answer: Ward Bond

Note: you all did very well last week! Gilby, remember you have a free pass this week!

Again we would like to thank Becks for the lovely "Flynn-in-drag" visual she provided last week (NOT)!

And on that note, ready or not, here is TT 61:

Who Am I? You might say I'm the most successful "female impersonator" in Hollywood history. I made seven feature films at MGM alone, and had a long-running TV series. I've worked with (among others) Donald Crisp, Jimmy Stewart, Peter Lawford, and Cloris Leachman. Who Am I?

Who Are We? A director and a famous actor, we worked together on a dozen films. One of us played a huge role in the other's monumental success. Yet our relationship became so rocky that at the end one of us quite literally had to have his hands pried off the other's throat before he killed him. Who Are We?

Who Am I? I was once quoted as saying, "I can whistle through my fingers, bulldog a steer, light a fire with two sticks, shoot a pistol with fair accuracy, set type, and teach school." I worked with Judith Anderson, Bette Davis, George Brent, and Raoul Walsh, among many others. Who Am !?

1. This film stars Tommy Rettig and Peter Lind Hayes. Name the film, the author of the screenplay, and the actor who played the title role.

2. In this film directed by Sidney Pollack, the lead actor says, "I don't remember yesterday. Today it rained." Pollack appeared in a couple of brief cameo roles, one of which was a cab driver who nearly runs the star down. Name the film and the star who speaks the quoted line.

3. As of 2008, which film maker held the record for most Oscar nominations?

4. Who Are We? and Who Am I? #2 once made a film together. Name the film.

5. Jimmie Rodgers sang the theme song for this film of the 1950s which was eventually spun off into a TV series in the 1960s. Name the film, and the star of the 1960s series.

6. Name the stars of the 1985 TV movie of the same name as the film in #5.

7. Which real California town was the basis for the fictional town in The Wild Ones?

8. In this 1970s film, the opening sequence contains a reference to John F. Kennedy. The real "bad guy" upon whom the film villain was based was found dead approximately three years after the film's release, supposedly "bumped off" in order to put an end to the interest in him and the clandestine organization to which he belonged that had been sparked by the film. Name the film and the stars.

9. In this British TV series, the main character referred to his wife as "She Who Must Be Obeyed". Name the series, the character, and the actor who played him.

10. The actor in #9 also appeared in a movie with a rock group. Name the film and the group. (Boy, is this one easy!)

Ted Ashley...Warner Brothers...and "the New Hollywood"

I’d never heard of studio exec Ted Ashley until I became engrossed in the life and career of silent film star John Gilbert earlier this year. When I spoke with her in August, the actor’s daughter Leatrice mentioned that in the 1970s she had been invited to visit the storied home her father had built in the 1920s by its current owner, Ted Ashley. Leatrice was in the process of researching her biography of her father then, and Ashley had graciously welcomed her into his home.

Ted Ashley, Jack Warner, Jack Valenti

Leatrice’s memories of the 1400 Tower Grove Road property intrigued me and inspired me to look further into its history (click here to learn more about “The House That Jack Built”). I learned that the Gilbert estate had been home to industry names for 55 years. Among its noteworthy owners, Ted Ashley, in residence from 1969 – 1977, had been Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. from 1969 to 1980.

I soon discovered that Ashley's regime dramatically rejuvenated Warner Bros. when he took over – and this prompted me to find out more about him…

The Brooklyn-born son of a tailor, Ted Ashley entered the world on August 2, 1922 as Theodore Assofsky. At age 15, young Ted went to work in the offices of New York’s famed William Morris Agency, the premier talent agency in the U.S. During this time he attended City College of New York and studied accounting. Deeply ambitious, Ashley was running his own talent firm while still in his 20s. The Ashley-Steiner agency represented artists in the fields of literature, theater, films and, later, TV.

To understand a bit more about Ted Ashley's ascent in the movie industry, I took a quick look into the business of talent…

The William Morris Agency began in 1898 when a young man by that name became a vaudeville agent.
In 1918 the company incorporated in New York and, as silent films emerged, Morris encouraged its clients to work in the new medium while most competitors stuck with vaudeville. The company began to dominate the agency business with a client list that included Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, the Marx Brothers and Mae West. As radio developed, Morris clients were urged to work in this new medium as well. By 1930, the agency had opened an office in Los Angeles where movies, by this time talking films, were booming. William Morris died in the early 1930s, but his agency carried on under his son in the west coast office and long-time partner, Abe Lastfogel, in New York. 

MCA (Music Corporation of America) began in the 1920s in Chicago packaging band performances for hotels and radio broadcasts and arrived in Hollywood in the late '30s. In 1946, company founder Jules Stein named 33-year old Lew Wasserman president of the company. By this time MCA was reputed to represent about half the industry’s stars and had become known as "the octopus," an agency with its tentacles everywhere in the industry.

In 1962, MCA acquired Universal Pictures and merged with Decca Records and was forced, under anti-trust laws, to divest itself of its talent interests. As a result, the William Morris agency regained its eminence and other agencies made significant inroads as well. CMA (Creative Management Associates), founded in 1960 by Freddie Fields and David Begelman, became a boutique agency for major stars of the day like Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.

With MCA’s divestiture, Ted Ashley’s Ashley-Steiner signed some of MCA’s foremost clients. Merging with Famous Artists, it became the Ashley-Famous agency. Among many things, Ashley-Famous was noted for packaging and selling TV shows such as “The Twilight Zone,” “Star Trek,” “Mission Impossible” and quite a few others.

Together with Lew Wasserman of MCA and David Begelman and Freddie Fields of CMA, Ted Ashley was part of an elite group widely considered Hollywood’s first generation of “super-agents.”

One of Ted Ashley’s long-time friends was business czar Steve Ross whose Kinney Corp. acquired Ashley’s agency in 1967. In 1969, Ashley helped Kinney acquire Warner Bros. (Jack Warner retired the following year). Ashley was made Chairman and CEO; his talent agency was sold to avoid a conflict of interest; the agency ultimately evolved into ICM (International Creative Management) through a merger with CMA in 1975.

At the time Ted Ashley took the helm at Warner’s, the ailing studio had some recent groundbreaking films to its  credit but was financially unstable and had made negligible profit during the year prior to his arrival. After its first year under Ashley, the revitalized studio made tens of millions.

What had happened to Warner Brothers? By the end of the 1940s, the post-war decline of the movie industry had hit the studio hard and it continued to struggle through the next decade. One contract player, James Dean, became a star but  was killed in 1955, just as his films were being released.  That same year the studio entered into a TV deal with ABC Television. It had a hit with the western series, “Cheyenne,” and this led to a run of successful western and detective shows over the next several years, including classics like “Maverick,” “77 Sunset Strip,” and “The Untouchables.”

Films remained a hit-and-miss proposition for Warner's into the 1960s, and in 1967 Jack Warner sold his
company stock to Seven Arts. A market slump in 1969 led to the deal with Kinney and Ashley’s ascendancy.

Committing to the kind of films that reflected contemporary themes and tastes, starred popular and emerging stars and featured auteur directors like Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, Warner's proved itself willing to take chances and set trends. And it was Ashley who gave the green light on all Warner's projects of the day as well as those of First Artists, Orion and the Ladd Company.

A selection of films made during Ted Ashley’s tenure includes a slew of Oscar winners and nominees as well as blockbusters, trendsetters and niche films: Woodstock (1970), Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971), Dirty Harry (1971), Klute (1971), Summer of ’42 (1971), Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Deliverance (1972), Peter Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc? (1972), the studio’s first blockbuster of the era, The Exorcist (1973), Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), the Mel Brooks sensation, Blazing Saddles (1974), disaster epic The Towering Inferno (1974), Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975), All the President’s Men (1976), Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), The Goodbye Girl (1977), Superman (1978) and Chariots of Fire (1981).

Box office smashes like Dirty Harry and Superman spawned lucrative film franchises.

Ashley also oversaw production of several popular TV series, including “Alice,” “Wonder Woman,” “Welcome Back, Kotter,” and “Chico and the Man.” In the mid-‘70s he hired David L. Wolper to develop a new form of TV programming, the mini-series. In 1977 Wolper produced the historic series “Roots” for Warner Bros., a powerful launch of the genre and winner of nine Emmy Awards.

Some have referred to the Ashley years as “the silver age” or “the second great age of Warner Bros.” When he departed as chairman/CEO in 1980,  the stage had been set for modern filmmaking and marketing.

After leaving his post at Warner Bros., Ashley became Vice Chairman of Warner Communications, the studio’s holding company, which also owned the Atari video game company and the Six Flags theme parks. Ashley retired from WC in 1988 and the following year Warner merged with Time, Inc., becoming Time Warner.

Ted Ashley’s retirement years were devoted to his impressive art collection which included paintings by Leger, Gris, Miro and Rothko as well as sculptures by Brancusi, Matisse and Degas.

He died on August 24, 2002 in New York at age 80 of leukemia.

John Calley, who had been hired as production chief when Ashley took over Warner Bros., recalled, “He was one of the smartest men I’ve known. The studio had been losing money year after year. The first year we got there, the studio made $35 million...”  Others remembered Ashley as a caring as well as shrewd, knowledgeable and successful Hollywood studio executive.

"Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford" by Donald Spoto

Faye Dunaway as Crawford.

If you know who Joan Crawford is, then surely the image you conjure up when you think of her is that of the grotesque Mommie Dearest as portrayed in the book by her adopted daughter, Christina Crawford, and in the subsequent horrific movie starring Faye Dunaway. In his latest biography Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford (William Morrow, 352 pages), author Donald Spoto presents the many sides of Joan Crawford--the good the bad and the ugly. The result is a portrait of a woman plagued by inner demons that seemed to haunt her through her entire life, although she made a Herculean effort to banish them forever.

Spoto is not an apologist for Joan Crawford's tarnished image, nor does he try to revise history. He presents the facts as they happened and comments on their validity and impact upon Joan, her private life and on-screen persona. He made full use of the vast amount of information available electronically, filling the pages with direct quotes from many of the people who were instrumental in creating Joan Crawford, the star: her ex-husbands, lovers, writers, directors, and studio moguls. This was a complex woman, and if you want to look beyond "no more wire hangers," this is a good place to start.

The driving force in Joan Crawford's life--the fire in her belly, the impetus for everything she ever did--was her devastatingly unhappy childhood, and her efforts to erase all vestiges of the impoverished and love-deprived Lucille Le Sueur. Each chapter in the book represents a specific timeframe in Joan's life, chronicling her interactions with the people and events that contributed to her intensely personalized master plan for success. The seedlings are planted in her unstable childhood, never knowing her real father and going through a series of stepfathers, who eventually walked out of her life, reinforcing her sense of abandonment and initiating an ultimately frustrating search for someone to love her. She was forced to leave school in the fifth grade and join her mother providing for the family. She worked wherever her mother managed to find employment, mostly in laundries where the family lived on site in what could be described as little more than a hovel. The years spent working as a laundress, with its inherent drudgery and monotony, provided fodder for her ever increasing inferiority complex. Her bother, Hal, an early 20th century version of a slacker, was her mother's favorite, and was never asked to contribute to the family upkeep.

Crawford and Franchot Tone.

Joan's lack of education also preyed on her ego and contributed to the feelings of low esteem that she would eventually obsessively attempt to conquer. Uneducated and unrefined, she realized that she had to learn how to present herself physically and mentally in order to survive in the Darwinian social structure that existed in Hollywood. She readily acknowledges that her marriages to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Franchot Tone provided her with a veritable masters degree in self-improvement. Both men introduced her to literature, the arts, politics, and she gleaned enough information to comfortably engage in conversations with the more sophisticated members of her husbands' circle of friends and the Hollywood elite.

Joan with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Joan had many teachers who provided the lessons she needed in order to perfect her image. The gesturing and wide-eyed expressions of the silent films had to be replaced with more subtle and nuanced use of the face to convey a characters emotional reactions. Crewmembers shared important aspects of lighting and camera placement, which provided her with a working knowledge of behind the scenes filmmaking. Costume designers and makeup artists helped her during the various phases of her career, creating the right look for the flapper, shopgirl, independent woman, and sophisticate. The right look, in public, at the studio and at home, was fanatically maintained. From hair to shoes, Joan could never appear as the girl next door in jeans and a blouse. She was a star, and fans expected nothing less than the image they saw on the silver screen.

Joan wished very much to have children, and give them all the love and advantages of a good home. This quest proved disastrous and often legally questionable, as in desperation, she turned to so-called "baby brokers." Despite a resolve to prevent the children from experiencing the pain and loss of her own childhood, she could not overcome the demand for perfection nor could she provide the children with the stability of a father figure. As testament to her failed attempts to create a happy household, each child harbored totally disparate memories and images of Joan as a mother.

Alfred Steele.

Joan's own pursuit of love, resulted in numerous long and short-term affairs; even while married, she continued her quest for the seemingly unattainable, but still felt devastatingly lonely. When Alfred Steele, the charismatic president of Pepsi-Cola entered her life, she knew she would marry him and felt confident that he would bestow her with the love she so achingly craved and banish the spectre of loneliness from her life. After Steele's untimely death in 1959, age 58, Joan maintained that during her four years of marriage she felt fulfilled and truly alive for the first time in her life.

The ferocity of determination, which had transformed a little waif from Texas into one of the most glamorous denizens of Hollywood also applied to her career path, effecting the choices she made regarding roles she was offered and roles she wanted to play. She transitioned easily from silent films to talking pictures. She'd been one of MGM's brightest stars and continued to be so with the introduction of sound. However, she became frustrated with the roles she was assigned, the quality of the scripts and directors who did not share her ambitions regarding stardom. Her acting style and appearance were constantly evolving in an effort to achieve perfection of the image that she fervently believed was still a work in progress. Spoto presents an interesting timeline of films along with revealing insights into Joan's choices, and her feelings about the completed film. He devotes almost a chapter to a wrongheaded decision by Joan to star in a film called Torch Song, considered one of the worst movies ever made and one of the most unintentionally hilarious. Contrary to world opinion, Joan loved it, and even bemoaned the fact that they didn't make pictures like this anymore.

There is also a document presented in the book, originally published in Life Magazine in February 1964, detailing the require-ments Joan demanded at all hotels she stayed at during a publicity tour for the film Strait-Jacket. Its excesses are reflective of Joan Crawford's self-image, that of a great motion picture star representative of all the glamour and sophistication associated with Hollywood and therefore entitled to all the creature comforts available at whatever cost.

If you're a long-standing Joan Crawfor fan, you are probably familiar with much of the information presented in this book. Fledgling admirers, however, will find this a veritable treasure trove of the events and people who helped power Joan Crawford's juggernaut to her rightful place as a Hollywood legend.

HarperCollins Publishers provided a review copy of Possessed to the Classic Film & TV Cafe.

Jean Vigo’s Poetic Vision: L’Atalante

Consult countless lists of the greatest films of all time and you will find this 1934 French classic. Considered to be director Jean Vigo’s masterpiece, L’Atalante is a surrealist love story for the ages. It is also a testament to Vigo’s artistic passion—he was deathly ill as he made it, often directing from a stretcher. He died shortly after filming was completed and could not edit the film himself. Instead, the editing task fell to some overenthusiastic Gaumont editors who cut the film from 89 to 65 minutes; somewhat damaging the film’s overall artistic composition. Thankfully, it was restored in 1990 and now truly resembles Vigo’s vision.

The beginning of the film finds handsome barge captain Jean (Jean Daste) marrying his proper girlfriend Juliette (Dita Parlo). Whoever said the honeymoon can’t last forever must have been thinking of poor Juliette, because she doesn’t get one. Instead, she and her new husband immediately board their humble floating abode, the L’Atalante, where they also share quarters with the rough Jules (Michel Simon) and his assortment of cats, as well as a cabin boy. Basically, this is a story about a simple man who wants simple things and a fanciful young woman who dreams of seeing Paris.  The story takes a dramatic turn when the barge docks in Paris and Juliette goes ashore without telling her husband. When he finds her gone he doesn’t wait for her return; instead, he angrily take the L’Atalante out of port—leaving his provincial wife to fend for herself in the big city.

There are many things to enjoy about this film. Using his signature style of poetic realism, Vigo captures both the sensual, tender relationship between Jean and Juliette in an almost ethereal sense, as well as capturing the grunginess of a cramped barge and the squalor of Depression-era Paris in a direct, unflinching manner. The love that the couple share is Vigo’s conception of beauty, while most of the outside world represents his vision of all that is crude. When they are together on the barge, even when they are fighting about soiled sheets and unkempt, crude Jules, they are truly happy. It is only when they are both physically and emotionally separated that the couple truly feels anguish and pain.

The most striking sequence in the film comes about due to this separation. Remembering that Juliette had once told him that she had opened her eyes under water to find her true love and had seen his face before she had ever met him, Jean jumps into freezing water and finds a smiling Juliette below the surface. When he returns to the boat he holds tight to a block of ice as if it were Juliette. It is a touching, spectacular scene to watch.  This is one of many great images that cinematographer Boris Kaufman captures. Truly, the film is a visual marvel, especially for 1934.

While both Parlo and Daste are more than memorable in this film, the one standout performer is Michel Simon as Jules. A master crafter of character, Simon always makes you believe he is his character. Still a relatively young man when he took on this role, Simon embodies the image of a sea-worn, old sailor who has seen and done everything.  In addition, his strange relationship with Juliette is something to behold. He is at once crass and lecherous, and in the next moment sweet and thoughtful. Capturing Jules’ dual nature, Vigo created a spectacular image of Simon, through the use of dissolved exposures, when Jules wrestles himself on deck, which comes across as two ghosts fighting over his body.

Francois Truffaut wrote that this was one of the films that shaped his own cinematic vision. It is easy to see why. Loaded with breathtaking images, as well as a tender love story, L’Atalante is a truly entertaining film.

Trivia Time - Part 60

Who Am I? My Hollywood career began in a film directed by Fritz Lang. I was in three movies with Vincent Price, was directed twice by Joseph Mankiewicz, and appeared once with Jessica Tandy. Who Am I?

Who Are We? The person from the first Who Am I? made three films with each of us separately. In addition, the two of us made one film together without Who Am I? #1. Who Are We?

1. Name all of the films mentioned in Who Am I?.

2. Name all of the films mentioned in Who Are We?.

3. Name at least two things these films have in common: Plymouth Adventure, Holiday Inn, and Miracle on 34th Street.

4. Name four films starring both Van Johnson and Spencer Tracy.

5. Name Walt Disney's first animated wide-screen movie and the format it was filmed in.

6. Name five things the following films have in common: Red River and Rio Bravo.

7. Name at least one thing the following films have in common: It Happened One Night, Devil Dogs of the Air, The Mortal Storm, and It's a Wonderful Life.

8. Name the movie that always seemed to be playing at the local theater on the TV series, Dobie Gillis (Maynard G. Krebs mentioned it frequently).

9. Name a British-born, Oscar-winning male character actor who was married only once for less than one year, directed four times by Alfred Hitchcock, and who was less than 5'6" tall.

10. Who was MGM's first choice to play Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, in the Wizard of Oz?

Trivia Time - Part 59 - the Answers

I noticed in a recent post that some were wondering how I come up with my Trivia Time questions. Just to re-affirm what I've said in earlier posts...I make up all the questions myself, I don't copy them from games or books or other websites. They are the products of my twisted little mind and/or the warped mind of my rocket-scientist (no kidding!) wife.

By the way, thanks to everyone who sent prayers and good wishes; the medical issue is now resolved, but last week was pretty intense. I hope all and sundry had a Happy Thanksgiving and ate plenty of turkey (without watching too many turkeys of the cinematic variety!).

Here are the answers to the Trivia Time posted two weeks ago:

1. Who was the male star of the film, Because They're Young?

Answer: Dick Clark

2. For a free pass for the entire month of December, name four members of the "back-up" band on Because They're Young.

Answer: Shelly Manne, Red Callender, Howard Roberts, Barney Kessel

4. Name three actors that Tony Curtis made more than one film with.

Answer: there are more than three actually, but you only had to name three....Stephen McNally, Burt Lancaster, Larry Storch, Audie Murphy, Kirk Douglas were some of the actors who made two or more films with Curtis.

5. This famous actor and this famous director made five films together, but only one was a drama. Name them and the drama.

Answer: Cary Grant and Howard Hawks; Only Angels Have Wings

6. Name all directors who made at least 3 movies with Tony Curtis.

Answer: Blake Edwards, Rudolph Maté, Joseph Pevney

7. Tony Curtis made 3 films with this actress (not Janet Leigh!). Name her.

Answer: Rick got Piper Laurie, which is correct, but I was looking for Natalie Wood.

8. In which movie did Tony Curtis make a reference to Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot?

Answer: Sex and the Single Girl

9. In the 1940s John Ridgely portrayed a Mountie in two films. Name the films and the stars.

Answer: Becks got Northern Pursuit (Errol Flynn); the other one was Iron Curtain (Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney).

Moguls and Movie Stars, Episode 5 - Warriors and Peacemakers

The fifth installment in TCM's ambitious documentary on the history of film, from the its first days through the turbulent 1960s, chronicles Hollywood in the 1940s.

The opening scenes focus on landmark films such as The Grapes of Wrath, Citizen Kane, The Great Dictator, and Casablanca. Gore Vidal and others comment on the lasting influence of Orson Welles and Kane. They also offer fascinating stories behind the making of Welles' classic, to include the origin of "Rosebud" and a memo from William Randolph Hearst "encouraging" one of his newspapers to offer a kindly review of Buster Keaton's The Cameraman.

Much of the episode obviously keys on Hollywood's contributions during World War II, spanning from Frank Capra's Why We Fight series to films promoting Americana (e.g. the Andy Hardy series) to the USO shows with Bob Hope and the Hollywood Canteen for servicemen. This segment ends appropriately with the Sam Goldwyn's post-war Best Picture The Best Years of Our Lives.

Wasserman kept a phone at the
family dinner table--to talk with
clients whenever they called.

My favorite part of Warriors and Peacemakers is a segment that traces the rise of agents, a side of the film industry often ignored in documentaries and reference books. Yet, there can be no doubt that the influence of Lew Wasserman, the first "super agent" and MCA, had a significant impact on the studios. The increasing power of agents, along with the "de Havilland decision" and the breakup of studio-owned theatre chains (both also addressed here), led to the eventual collapse of the "studio system."

Due to the constraints of its one-hour running time, the episode only touches briefly on the emergence of films with strong female characters, the treatment of minorities in the 1940s (e.g., Home of the Brave), the McCarthy hearings, and the birth of film noir. The latter is especially disappointing given the later influence of noir classics such as Laura and Out of Past.

A more serious omission is the migration of great foreign filmmakers from war-torn Europe to Hollywood. Fritz Lang made classic 1940s fare such as Scarlet Street, while Jean Renoir (The Southerner), Julien Duvivier (Flesh and Fantasy) and other foreign filmmakers made memorable Hollywood contributions.

Such criticism is minor, given the goal of covering a historically-packed decade in sixty minutes. Viewers unfamiliar with Hollywood in the 1940s will gain some valuable insight from Warriors and Peacemakers. More serious film buffs will enjoy the film clips, newsreel footage, and commentary on many of their favorite movies.

YouCast Corporation provided a screening copy of this episode to the Classic Film & TV Cafe.

Holiday Gift Ideas for the Classic Film & TV Fan (2010 Edition)

One of the Cafe's most popular articles last year was a list of holiday gift ideas from our contributors (click here to read last year's recommendations). This year, we are proud to present the sequel! Without further discussion, here are some gift ideas for the classic film and/or TV lover in your family.

Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut and Helen G. Scott (recommended by Rick29). This 1985 nonfiction book consists of a series of Alfred Hitchcock interviews conducted by filmmaker and film critic Francois Truffaut. The two film giants start with Hitchcock's first movie and work their way through his filmography, analzying each picture. It's a fascinating book--not just for Hitchcock fans--but for anyone that loves classic film. In preparation for the interviews, Truffaut watched every film discussed and his insights are often as absorbing as Hitchcock's. This is my favorite film reference book..and the one that I peruse the most frequently. It's available in both hardback and paperback.

Mission: Impossible - Seasons 1, 2, or 3 (recommended by Toto). Need to overthrow a ruthless dictator? Rescue a kidnapped scientist? Frame a big-time gangster? Recover a few million in gold bullion? Then, you need the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), which accompishes these seemingly impossible tasks on a weekly basis. Each episode unfolds like an intricate heist plot with only part of the plan revealed to the viewer. Seasons 2 and 3 feature the best-known cast with Peter Graves as the group's leader and the team consisting of Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Greg Morris, and Peter Lupus. The first season boasts Steven Hill as the IMF leader. I was skeptical about Season 1 after watching the always-smooth Graves as the head of the IMF. However, Hill is quite good, too, bringing his trademark intensity to the role. In short, you can't go wrong with choosing any of the first three seasons as a gift.

3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg (recommended by TheLadyEve). My Christmas suggestion is a gift for both the silent film fan and the classic film lover who is just becoming acquainted with them. This new Criterion Collection, released last August, includes: Underworld (1927), widely considered the first film gangster film (and an Oscar winner): The Last Command (1928) which stars Emil Jannings, who won an Oscar for his performance; and Docks of New York (1928), another much-celebrated silent classic. A quote from my TCM Classic Film Union friend (and silent film aficionado) Gagman66: "the Von Sternberg set is the event of the year for silent film fans," and "...if you don't know much about silents, these von Sternberg's are an outstanding introduction. In my opinion they are every bit as good if not better than his early 30's sound films...."  For more information, click here.
 

Golden Girls: 25th Anniversary Complete Collection (recommended by Sarkoffagus). Picture it: Miami, 1985. Four elderly ladies living together under one roof: tough, caring, and occasionally sarcastic Dorothy Zbornak; sweet and naive Rose Nylund; free-spirited Southern belle Blanche Devereaux; and Dorothy's mother, Sophia Petrillo, a firecracker who speaks her mind and asks questions later. Containing all seven seasons, the series is packaged in a replica of Sophia's ever-present wicker handbag. A perfect gift for gals (or guys) who cannot get enough of Dorothy's cynical remarks, Rose's stories of St. Olaf, Blanche's escapades, or the lovable Sophia. And, of course, the gift is only complete with a card attached that says, "Thank you for being a friend."

The Spy Collection Megaset (recommended by Rick29). This unique boxed set contains episodes from four spy TV series from the 1960s and early 1970s:  Patrick McGoohan's cult classic The Prisoner; The Champions; The Persuaders with Tony Curtis and Roger Moore; and The Protectors starring Robert Vaughn and Nyree Dawn Porter. Note that you get some episodes from each series, but all the episodes from none. Thus, this boxed set makes a terrific sampler...but if you get hooked on The Prisoner (as you probably will), you'll have to make another purchase to get the full series. The best of this megaset is McGoohan's one-of-a-kind series, of course. However, I thoroughly enjoyed The Champions, which traced the exploits of a trio of agents that are imbued with superhuman powers when their plane crashes in the Himalayas. Despite their casts, The Persuaders and The Protectors fail to live up to expectations, but they're both diverting and boast cool theme music (the former was composed by John Barry).

Busy Berkeley 9-Film Collection (recommended by Dawn). The musical fans on your holiday shopping list will love this ten-disc boxed set that includes: 42nd Street; Gold Diggers of 1933; Footlight Parade; Dames; Gold Diggers of 1935; Gold Diggers of 1937; Varsity Show; Hollywood Hotel; and Gold Diggers in Paris. A added bonus is "The Busby Berkeley Disc," a toe-tapping compilation of 21 of the choreographer/filmmaker's greatest dance numbers.
 

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (recommended by Rick29). Looking for an inexpensive stocking stuffer for the classic film fan in your family? You can't go wrong with this well-priced DVD of the timeless science fiction classic (click here to read the film review). The DVD offers some great extras: commentary by director Robert Wise and Nicolas Meyer; a "making of" documentary; shooting script; newsreel footage; restoration comparison (the new print is awesome); trailer; and stills. Merrry "Klaatu barada nikto" to you!

Now Playing, a Viewer's Guide to Turner Classic Movies (recommended by ClassicBecky).  Have the classic film fans in your family always wanted to subscribe to TCM's magazine, but just never wanted to spend the money on themselves? Get them a gift subscription! Now Playing, which is published monthly, has interesting articles, great pictures, descriptions of the movies--all kinds of things that would be fun to read.  A subscription would be a wonderful present for a classic movie fan.

The Val Lewton Collection (recommended by ClassicBecky). A collection of movies by the great Val Lewton would be a welcome addition to many movie lovers' collection.  His wonderful, subtle brand of eerie movies, such as Cat People, The Seventh Victim, and I Walked With a Zombie are a few of his films featured in this six-disc set containing all his RKO horror films.