January 2010

Last year, I took on the impossible challenge of trying to see an average of one movie a day. To my surprise, I was actually able to complete this task for nearly half of 2009 before I became distracted by other things. This year, I'm going to try simply blogging about the movies I watch. That should prove more manageable.

Although I would like to have hit more out of the ballpark (I could only rate one movie out of 20 a perfect "ten"), there was certainly a lot of variety in my selections this month. I suppose that's a nice way of saying it was a catastrophically mixed bag, but we strive for optimism around my house.


FIRST-RUN FILMS

Of the half-dozen current films I sat through, the first was the best: last year's Avatar, less than a month old but still #1 at the box office as I write this at the end of January. It has trumped Titanic as the all-time box-office champ. It's a total bliss-out, and although it's admittedly a retread of Disney's Pocahontas, what really confounds me is that I did not even realize until after my second screening of it that it's really the ten billionth regurgitation of the old "Big Lie" plot I'm eternally complaining about—a man deceives a lady with whom he ends up falling in love, then she discovers his deception and their true love is thrown into jeopardy. I can forgive few movies for using this incredibly creaky plot, but this one is a dazzler.

Rounding out the other first-run movies seen in a theater this month: Youth in Revolt, a quirky but funny movie starring Michael Cera as a nice guy with a romantic problem that only his evil alter-ego can solve; Nine, a quite stylish musical with an excellent cast that didn't deserve the critical drubbing it received (although it does play a lot like a remake of All That Jazz, and there's so much cigarette smoking in it that I feared I might get movie lung cancer); and When In Rome, a repellent Disney-produced "comedy" starring Kristen Bell and her adorable smile, which I saw at a free screening, and I still want my money back. (Su, you sure can pick 'em.)

Meanwhile, I caught a couple of recent flicks on DVD screeners: The Fantastic Mr. Fox, a mostly enjoyable Wes Anderson-directed stop-motion adaptation of the Roald Dahl children's novel, and The Blind Side, an above-average drama with Sandra Bullock as a sassy but big-hearted rich woman who takes a hulking, illiterate black youth under her wing and helps educate him and turn him into a football hero. Yay, liberals!


REVIVALS

Of the four movies I caught at revival theaters, the big revelation for me is what a knockout Jennifer Jones (who died in December) was. Although I sat through Madame Bovary on DVD last year, I apparently failed to be beguiled by the abundant beauty of Jennifer. Traveling to Palo Alto to visit my friend Jay, we saw two of her dramas at our favorite haunt, the Stanford Theatre: Love Letters (1945), in which she plays an amnesia victim who falls in love with creepy Joseph Cotten, and Portrait of Jennie (1948), in which she plays a ghost who falls in love with creepy Joseph Cotten. Neither movie was truly outstanding, although both had their moments, howsoever brief.

It was also finally time for me to encounter the famous 1948 critics' favorite, The Bicycle Thief. Directed by Vittorio De Sica and starring a cast of non-professionals, this Italian classic tells the simple story of a poor man who lands a job hanging posters, but is immediately thwarted by the theft of his bicycle. Although the movie kept me absorbed throughout, I was a little disappointed by the downbeat ending—which, while I recognize that it was a landmark denouement for its day, still left me a little unsatisfied. (Like Jay, I demand a little justice from my dramas.) Meanwhile, I didn't last longer than 30 minutes into the surprisingly boring 1965 comedy-western Cat Ballou, starring Jane Fonda back when she was simply smoldering.


DVD SELECTIONS

My friend Anna chose two of her favorites for us to watch together: 1996's supernatural thriller The Craft, and the 2004 indie comedy Mail Order Wife, both of which I enjoyed. Mail Order Wife, in particular, had a number of unpredictable twists that kept me guessing throughout.


Rounding out my other selections from the DVD vault, in order of quality:

• Sons and Lovers, the Oscar-winning adaptation of the classic D.H. Lawrence novel I was supposed to read in high school, about a young artist in a mining community whose mother postively suffocates him with love.
• The Smallest Show on Earth, an amusing 1957 British comedy co-starring Peter Sellers as the projectionist of a decaying movie house.
• Big Jake, a violent 1971 John Wayne western with a kidnapping and revenge theme...not surprisingly, from the same screenwriter who penned Dirty Harry, released the same year!
• Bunny Lake is Missing, a vaguely Hitchockian suspenser about a young woman whose young daughter inexplicably goes missing from her school, and the resulting manhunt, which yields a surprise ending.
• The Day the Earth Caught Fire, a serviceable 1961 end-of-the-world thriller.
• The Glass House, a TV movie co-written by Truman Capote and featuring Alan Alda as a nice-guy prisoner who gets on the bad side of mean prisoner Vic Morrow.
• Bluebeard's 10 Honeymoons, a George Sanders film released the same year (1960) as my beloved Village of the Damned, this one casting him as a serial killer.
• Quacker Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx, the movie "comedy" Gene Wilder released the year before Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, proving once again that I don't like Gene Wilder movies where he has to do a funny accent (this time an Irish one). And what an awful title, too.

ET CETERA

Interestingly, the first movie I saw of 2010 wasn't on DVD or on TV or at the theater. For several years, I have wanted to see Alan Alda in a filmed stage play about a married guy who romances a married woman. You may think I am describing Same Time, Next Year (1978), but no. While it's true that I do adore that movie, I am referring to a TV movie called 6 RMS RIV VU from four years before Same Time, Next Year.

Based on Bob Randall play, 6 RMS RIV VU stars Alda and Carol Burnett, both of whom were nominated for Best Lead Actor Emmy awards in 1974 for this comedy. To my amazement, it has never been issued on DVD and I've never found a copy for sale anywhere on the Internet. Naturally, this only intensified my interest in seeing it. As luck would have it, the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills offers patrons the chance to watch a video copy on a private TV monitor. So did it live up to my expectations? Not entirely, although it was certainly wonderful to finally scratch the itch. It's not bad, but production values were extremely low (it was reminiscent of watching a videotaped-live sitcom like All in the Family), and it contained numerous dated jokes of the "Hey, your shrink is my shrink's shrink" variety. Still, it's always nice to see Alda and Burnett, both of whom starred in the stellar 1981 comedy The Four Seasons, written and directed by the great "Hawkeye Pierce"!


THE RERUNS

Not included in my final tally (below), but worth mentioning anyway, are a few favorite movies that I was successfully able to foist upon my friends. First, Su and her family agreed to sit still long enough on my birthday for a late-evening DVD screening of my all-time favorite movie, Village of the Damned (1960), at their Santa Monica home. Usually I don't like people around me to talk during a movie, but in this instance, I was hanging on every one of their comments each time they predicted what might happen next. It was one of the highlights of the month for me, a memory I will cherish forever.

Next up was my victim Leticia, who was hijacked to a New Beverly Cinema showing of 1971's hilarious comedy A New Leaf, directed by and starring Elaine May, with Walter Matthau as her husband and would-be killer. The story of the film's agonizing birth is almost as interesting as the story told by the film; it's well worth researching (or asking me to tell you about). The movie also single-handedly turned me into a gigantic fan of mystery writer Jack Ritchie, who penned the marvelous short story it was based on. Leticia was left lukewarm, but seeing it on the big screen for the first time in my life, with a theater full of like-minded and laughing patrons, was an absolute joy for me.

Finally, during my visit to Palo Alto to see Jay, I brought along my DVD of the magnificent Hobson's Choice (1954), which I discovered last year. I knew he would enjoy the story, the brilliant humor, the acting and the conclusion, which contains utterly no trace of injustice (a pet peeve of his). If you've never seen Charles Laughton in this movie, you owe it to yourself to give it a peek!

THE FINAL TALLY (with 1-10 ratings)

Avatar (10)
Nine (9)
Sons and Lovers (9)
Youth in Revolt (8)
Big Jake (8)
The Smallest Show on Earth (8)
Mail-Order Wife (8)
The Craft (8)
The Bicycle Thief (8)
The Blind Side (7)
Bunny Lake is Missing (7)
6 RMS RIV VU (7)
Love Letters (7)
Bluebeard's 10 Honeymoons (7)
The Glass House (6)
Portrait of Jennie (6)
The Fantastic Mr Fox (6)
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (6)
Quacker Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (3)
When in Rome (2)

Christmas with the Steeles 2009

6/7/09: That Certain Summer (1972)

TV-MOVIE MONTH
Nominated for a slew of Emmy Awards (and winner for Supporting Actor Scott Jacoby), That Certain Summer turns out to be a surprisingly boring affair. The theme of homosexuality was still relatively new to movies in general back in 1972, and practically unheard of on TV. But 37 years later, it's understandable that the impact has been somewhat muted. So forgettable is the storyline that halfway through viewing the film, I realized that I had actually seen it—or at least some of it—as recently as last year.

Hal Holbrook, a big favorite of mine, plays a divorced father of a 15-year-old boy (Jacoby) who comes to learn that Dad's good friend Gary (Martin Sheen) is actually his live-in lover. (Memo to closeted dads: if you have an electric razor, hide the bottle of shaving cream.) It's a bitter pill to swallow, regardless of the year or the political climate. But That Certain Summer unfolds at a snail's pace, and the truly great cast (including Hope Lange and Joe Don Maker) don't manage to make much of an impression, at least on me. After looking forward to seeing it for half a lifetime, That Certain Summer proves to be a major letdown from one of my all-time favorite writing teams, Richard Levinson and William Link—who subsequently reteamed with Holbrook for the infinitely superior TV movie Murder by Natural Causes seven years later. Rating: 2/5.

6/6/09: A Taste of Evil (1971)

TV-MOVIE MONTH
A Taste of Evil starts with Susan Wilcox, a girl of about 11, being attacked and then raped at her home by an unknown assailant. Flash-forward to several years later, and we learn that the incident left Susan traumatized to the point of catatonia for quite some time. The mental wounds now having been healed, Susan returns home to confront her demons—only to find that the original menace may still be lurking in the shadows. Or is it all in her imagination? As we learn what's really going on in A Taste of Evil, there are some unexpected twists in the tale; farfetched though some of it is, the movie did keep me spellbound throughout—this is precisely the sort of thriller I would have absolutely loved as a kid, and it still keeps me entertained today. The movie is a close cousin to another TV shocker from my youth: A Strange and Deadly Occurrence, made in 1974 by the same director, John Llewellyn Moxey. Evil coaxes good performances from Barbara Stanwyck, Barbara Parkins, Roddy McDowall, William Windom and Arthur O'Connell. Nicely written by horror-movie veteran screenwriter Jimmy Sangster. Rating: 4/5.

6/5/09: Hitchhike! (1974)

TV-MOVIE MONTH
One frequent setting for 1970s TV suspense flicks was the open highway (e.g., Duel). In fact, actress Cloris Leachman, star of today's crapfest du jour, starred in one (Dying Room Only) only a year earlier. In today's entry, she picks up a hitchhiker, the aloof Michael Brandon, who has just murdered his lover in cold blood. Now, I have a very difficult time sympathizing for anybody who picks up a perfect stranger by the side of the road, so it's a challenge to muster any real sympathy for Cloris in this particular movie. Worse, there are way too many dull stretches on their way from L.A. to San Francisco. The action occasionally perks up when Brandon gets a little psychopathic from time to time, but Hitchhike! ultimately suffers from an anemic script and so-so performances (although Cloris is good, as usual). This is one movie that will really make you appreciate having a cell phone. Rating: 2/5.

6/4/09: Revenge for a Rape (1976)

TV-MOVIE MONTH
Death Wish meets Deliverance in today's howlingly awful, hopelessly schlocky revenge flick. Mike Connors (TV's Mannix) goes on a camping trip with his wife when she is raped by three guys while he's fishing. Unwilling to let the police do their job, he goes hunting for the culprits himself...with disastrous results.

Now, I love revenge stories, which is why I grabbed this DVD from the pile so early on in TV-Movie Month. However, 20 years before this was filmed, the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents aired an extremely similar story called "Revenge," wherein Ralph Meeker goes after the man he believes raped his wife (Vera Miles), with the twist being that she pointed out an innocent bystander. That's the same basic plot twist (targeting an innocent guy for wife rape) behind Revenge for a Rape; I wouldn't have minded the similarity in the story, except that the acting, direction, soundtrack and script are all irredeemably third-rate. Some unintentional laughs, though. Rating: 1/5.

6/3/09: The Forgotten Man (1971)

TV-MOVIE MONTH
Writer Bernard Fein was one of of the creators and writers of Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971), about a group of POWs in World War II. His final TV project was the TV movie The Forgotten Man, about a Vietnam POW played by Dennis Weaver, but the tone is decidedly more dramatic.

Escaping from a POW camp five years after he was presumed killed in the war, he returns to the States—only to find that his wife has remarried, his business sold and the life he once knew a distant memory. Worse yet, he is exhibiting symptoms of what is now known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD). He keeps flashing back to his savage captors and his interrogations, and as Weaver's mind begins to unravel, it leads to some unnerving and scary behavior.

The Forgotten Man is extremely typical of the low-budget television movies from the 1970s; familiar TV actors, familiar orchestral score, obvious spots for commercial breaks, etc. For me, that's not a criticism—it adds to the nostalgic flavor. The film kept me absorbed, and surprisingly I couldn't have predicted the direction the story would take. Weaver and co-star Lois Nettleton are very good; even better is young Pamelyn Ferdin (who appeared in countless movies and TV shows during the '60s and '70s), playing Weaver's beloved daughter. Rating: 3/5.

6/2/09: Baffled! (1973)

TV-MOVIE MONTH
Several of the filmmakers of yesterday's offering worked on various incarnations of Star Trek; today's choice stars Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy. Indeed, Nimoy's participation was my sole reason for being interested in Baffled! Regrettably, the movie is fairly weak, cheaply made, horrendously scored and full of bad acting, especially by Nimoy.

He stars as Tom Kovack, a race-car driver who starts having strange psychic visions that take him to a hotel in England, where some curious things are going on. He is aided by psychic-phenomena enthusiast Susan Hampshire, whose attractiveness is one of the very few things that kept me from falling asleep. Together they try to put the pieces of the mystery together, and of course by the end of the movie they have done just that. The formula reminded me of two much later TV series; it's sort of a cross between Medium (a person's visions are connected to a crime) and The X-Files (male and female team up to solve an otherworldly mystery). Both of those series were infinitely better than this dull movie of the week. The opening credits sequence and the very last scene make it painfully obvious that this was a pilot for a show. Why it never happened will definitely not leave you Baffled! Rating: 2/5.

6/1/09: Family Flight (1972)

TV-MOVIE MONTH
As of this writing, I am planning to devote the entirety of June to movies made for TV during the 1970s. Growing up in that decade, I loved so many of the "Movies of the Week" that aired in that decade, from critically acclaimed broadcasts (Sybil, Duel) to low-budget thrillers (Trilogy of Terror) and well-written but now-forgotten dramas (A Cry for Help). Over the years, I have built up quite a collection of these Seventies flicks that I missed—enough for two months' worth of viewings at least. They include family dramas (the critically lauded That Certain Summer), horror schlock (Satan's School for Girls), mysteries (Snatched), and assorted romances, dramas, comedies, shockers and sci-fi claptrap. Since none of them were shown in theaters, I obviously won't be able to display a poster to accompany each blog entry; I'll show a VHS or DVD cover if the movie was officially released.

We kick off, for no reason whatsoever, with Family Fight, a 1972 suspenser directed by Marvin Chomsky (who lensed a few of the original Star Trek episodes) and produced by Harve Bennett, who, coincidentally enough, would go on to produce several of the Star Trek feature films. Rod Taylor stars as the head of a dysfunctional family (including an alcoholic wife and a withdrawn son) who pilots a small aircraft over Baja California when the plane is forced down in the desert. The party of four must work together to get out of a very tense and dangerous situation. The film is extremely representative of its type from this era; it reminded me a bit of Ordeal, another survival-themed TV movie (from 1973) that stranded Arthur Hill in the desert. Like most movies from this genre, what it lacks in production values, it makes up for in decent acting and an interesting story. This was one of the first movie roles for Ed Begley Jr., who has a couple of lines as a hitchhiker at the beginning of the film. Rating: 4/5.

5/31/09: A Simple Twist of Fate (1994)

MERF'S PICKS
Although it wasn't intentional, the fact that I sequenced two Steve Martin movies back to back turns out to have been a stroke of genius—especially these two particular titles. While both are worth watching, they couldn't be more different. The Lonely Guy is a broad comedy trading on Steve's comic persona, although he didn't write the screenplay; whereas A Simple Twist of Fate is a straight drama, with a script penned by Martin. Separated by exactly one decade, Twist of Fate shows Steve's growth as an actor and spotlights his ambition as a scenarist.

Loosely based on George Eliot's 1861 novel Silas Marner, the movie features Steve as a divorced loner whose life suddenly changes when a toddler literally walks into his life (and his house) one chilly winter's night. The little girl's mother, a heroin addict, has died outside in the snow, and a couple of rather farfetched scenes later, Steve Martin has adopted Mathilda as his own.

The movie's third act becomes a courtroom drama, with the now 12-year-old girl's biological father attempting to gain custody of the child. The heaviness of the drama is lifted by occasional and much-needed flashes of humor, some of it provided by SCTV veteran Catherine O'Hara, whom I've never thought of as particularly attractive, but who is drop-dead gorgeous in this film. (Pity she didn't get the opportunity to play Steve's love interest.) Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, as the biological father, partially succeeds with his Southern accent, and Cliff Eidelman's musical score is perfectly lush and melodic. The acting is all first-rate, and the various children playing Mathilda are amazing, especially Alana Austin as the 12-year-old version. I had only two slight gripes about the film. First, after letting his toddler escape briefly from their house, Steve later allows her to vanish again, and she teeters precariously from a steep cliff. (Bad parenting, Steve, and bad scripting—I lost faith in you as a Dad after that scene.) Second, I wanted to be more touched by the events in the movie, especially the ending. My eyes were entirely too dry by the dénouement; while there was plenty of warmth and emotion, I never got truly verklempt. (Thank God English borrows from so many other languages!) Despite those misgivings, I did enjoy the movie. Rating: 4/5.