-Harry`s Film Impressions (7)

von am 21. November 2018 um 14:00
Veröffentlicht in: Film, Text

The Bogart Butt

When I was a kid, I saw Bogart as a private eye, reporter, sea captain or gangster on the lam. He had something that the other tough guys, Edward G., Cagney and Ladd didn’t have – the Bogart butt. The cigarette was indispensable. The other toughies also smoked, but their smoking was incidental and not part of their savoir-faire. Bogey’s butt was as much a part of him as the fedora and the trench coat. No one smoked the way he did. When he inhaled, his eyes slit and the oval wrinkles on his forehead furled, you knew that something was up, and something like a fist fight, shoot-out or sea battle would ensue. He seduced most of us into smoking. We wanted to look like him and be as tough as he was. Drawing the smoke in the way he did was the first step. The men were soon separated from the boys. I was among the boys. No matter how I slit my eyes and furled, when I drew in the smoke, the only thing that happened was that I gagged and retched. I guess I just wasn’t cut out to be a tough guy.

 

Bogart

As a non-tough-guy and a non-smoker, I still enjoyed watching Bogey’’s celluloid smoking, but then he didn’t blow smoke into my face and I couldn’t smell his cigarettes.

In 1955, when turned twenty, I was first disillusioned about Bogey. He and Spencer Tracy, who were friends, were scheduled to do The Desperate Hours for MGM, but Tracy opted out since neither of them would accept second billing. The film was made with Bogart as star supported by Fredric March.

In 1957 at the age of 57 Bogart died of throat cancer. He was skin and bones, weighing 96 lbs.

 

The Tough Guy and the Priest

Tough Guys were always half pints. Bogey, Cagney and Edward G. were on the short side. Alan Ladd had to stand on a soapbox while sparring with hoods and while kissing his leading ladies.

The quintessential tough guy was of course Jimmie C. He was the fresh-faced kid, the smart aleck, the wiseacre the young upstart, the guy with a chip on his shoulder, the slum kid who went wrong. The Cagney qualities came to the fore best when his foil was Father Pat. When Cagney played opposite O’Brien, you knew that Jimmie would have the best lines, but that in the end conversion was in the cards.

James Cagney

In Angels with Dirty Faces, directed by Michael Curtiz in ‘38, Jimmie and Pat are boyhood pals. Pat gives up stealing apples for the priesthood, but Jimmie takes the crooked path, which means dough and dames. Jimmie has a ball as a hood until he shoots another gangland member, who just happens to be his turncoat pal, Bogey. Unfortunately, for Jimmie, the fuzz is on to him and he finds himself in the dock, and then he’s sent up the river on a murder rap. Jimmie’s fans in the film are the Dead End Kids, who came on the scene in Dead End and then turned up in a lot of gangster films, until they had their own B-film series and became the Bowery Boys. Anyway, back to Angels! Father Pat gives his good old Irish religious spiel to Jimmie, whose taking his sequester on death row in his hard-boiled way. Father Pat tells his erstwhile boyhood pal, to soften up, so that he doesn’t continue to be the wrong kind of role model for his Dead-End fans, lest they follow his example and end up where he now is. Of course our swaggering Jimmie tells Pat to shove it and to shove off. But when it comes to walking that last mile, he obliges his old friend by whimpering on his way to the chair. Fade out with a glowing Father Pat. If you think this is corny, you’re right, but Mike Curtiz was an expert in packaging corn, but like his other packages of corn, it’s got momentum all the way.

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)

Ditto for William Keighly for The Fightng 69th in 1940. In this one cocky Cagney is a cynic as far as religion is concerned. But when it comes down to brass tacks on the battlefield in the Great War, he caves in and cowers in a foxhole, instead of going gung-ho for the enemy. After a pep talk and a religious workout by the chaplain, good old father Pat of the square dimpled chin, Jimmie sees the light and accepts Christ. The lines of the born-again Jimmie aren’t nearly as good as when he was putting “all that Holy Joe stuff” down, however he becomes a model for the Saturday-matinee youngsters and naturally dies as a hero in action. When I saw the film, I was religious, and I should have approved the change in attitude, but somehow I liked the swaggering Jimmie better that the “Holy Joe” one. The film augured my future. I had a reverse conversion. I dropped the “Holy Joe” stuff and became the celestial cynic I am.

 

to be continued . . .

– Herbert Kuhner

-Harry`s Film Impressions (6)

von am 17. November 2018 um 23:28
Veröffentlicht in: Film, Text

Too Much Cotton

Orson Weles reaped great praise for Touch of Evil, a sloppy job compared with Kane, but nevertheless with moments of greatness like all post-Kane films. A corpulent Welles plays a, dishevelled cop, but he felt needed a bit of padding for the jowls, so cotton was the answer. The padding is too much of a bad thing. Guess the Kane make-up man was not available.

Touch-of-Evil

Ditto for Brando’s elderly Mafioso in Godfather. His comeback got him an Oscar but you know that the cotton is there, and knowing it as well as having it, makes chills run up and down your spine. It must have affected the acting in one way or another. Guess the Oscar jury ignored it.

Master-actor Larry Olivier would have said: “Why don’t you try acting, dear boy?!”
And he might have added: “Fire the makeup man!”

 

Christian Dies before His Time

One-eyed Jacks is the only directorial effort by Marlon Brando, a vengeance western, in which Karl Malden plays the turncoat pal that Brando has to hunt down. Plebeian is the word that best describes this cliché-ridden formula film. Jack can be classified as “entertainment.”

But while the entertainment is delivered you can sort of enjoy it with more than a bit of squirming in your seat, but any enjoyment ends after you leave the theater and think about what you’ve seen.

The same can be said for Mutiny of the Bounty, in which Lewis Milstone does Brando’s bidding, after the great Carol Reed threw in the towel. Mutiny cannot compare with the Frank Lloyd film in which Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian outshines Charles Laughten as a bushy-eyed Captain Bligh. It’s reverse outshining with Trevor Howard as Bligh. Brando does not play the pouting, brooding Fletcher any better than he played the pouting, brooding Wehrmacht officer in The Young Lions.

I should interject that Brando has achieved excellence as an actor, but when he is aware that he is in a mediocre vehicle, he lets self-indulgence get the better of him. Erratic is the word for him. When he’s up, he’s up high, but when he takes a downward plunge, only the ground can stop him. Sensing that he was sinking with the Bounty, he felt that he had to do something drastic in order to retrieve the film. And what did he does he do? He dies playing the role. The real Fletcher Christian settled on Pitcairn Island with his fellow mutineers, where they settled down with native girls, had families and eventually died in deadly disputes. However, Brando wrenched history from its hinges and had Christian die while torching the Bounty. This drastic deed, which defied reality, just provided another set of histrionic gestures that helped sink both boat and film.

Anthony Hopkins as Bligh

Twenty-two years later Roger Donaldson made The Bounty, trying to set things aright, with Mel Gibson as Christian and Anthony Hopkins as Bligh. This time Christian dies on Pitcairn Island, as he did in real life. Gibson, to be sure, toned down the role of Christian. Later, however, he carried on in Brando fashion, matching Brando’s flamboyance as director of The Passion of the Christ.

That’s how we get from Christian to Christ.

 

Stephan Boyd and the Blades

Remember the chariot race in Ben-Hur?! This is touted to be the greatest cinematic races in film history. Now if this were a fair race, Charlton Heston aka reston Ben Hur would simply have out-charioted Stephen Boyd aka Messala Simple as that! But in order to make it interesting, Boyd, who was Heston’s turncoat pal, has blades attached to his chariot wheels. So Boyd has the advantage. And he uses the blades to chop up the wheels of some of the chariot competition and send it to Kingdom Come.

But in spite of being handicapped by having to race and fight at a disadvantage, a bloodied Heston hurtles over the finish line to win.

Thrilling race to be sure! William Wyler, dealt with the pedestrian and equestrian spectacle-fare handily since he was master director. He certainly knew how to pull the cinema wool over the eyes of critical viewers – but not quite.

I’ve always wondered why one of the charioteers didn’t bring Boyd’s blades to the attention of the judges. The answer must have been that Boyd either bribed the judges, or that his “family” was running the show. At any rate, the background of Boyd’s blades was not considered important enough to convey to the viewer. Important was that Heston raced at a disadvantage and won in spite of it, with Boyd biting the dust.

On-the-set-of-Ben-Hur-directed-by-William-Wyler-1959

to be continued . . .

– Herbert Kuhner

-APHORISMS by Žarko Petan

von am 16. November 2018 um 11:40
Veröffentlicht in: Text, Translations

APHORISMS
by Žarko Petan

Translated by Herbert Kuhner

I’m a fatalist;
I love femme fatales.

The male dream:
a virgin with experience.

The ideal women:
hot in winter, frigid in summer.

A nudist fell in love with a nudist
upon seeing her dressed
for the first time.

I’ve had bad experiences
with experience.

Marriage begins
with a happy end.

In marriage women are true —
to their principles.

Divorce is time out
between marriages.

Dog is man’s best friend;
with girlfriends he’s more particular.

War is a tragedy
that becomes a parody
in history books.

Soldiers are involuntary
blond donors.

A coward’s heart beats fester
than a hero’s
and for a longer time.

In war
death is the modus vivendi.

Military tactics
have nothing to do with tact.

A blitzkrieg usually ends
with a short circuit.

After a revolution
the number of revolutionaries
increases.

I blindfolded justice
and said:
let’s play pin the tail on the donkey.

Everything is possible in a democracy.
Nothing is impossible in a dictatorship.

The foreign minister
always denies having anything to do
with the minister of the interior.

When bureaucrats feud,
ink flows profusely.

You can always spot your enemy
by his friendly grin.

Some patriots are only
gigolos of the state.

A bad future
is better than none.

Sometimes there‘s only one round
between o.k. and k.o.

It’s hard to answer
the wrong question in the right way.

A Yugoslav orchestra:
ten conductors and one musician.

A dilemma for writers:
either you write for future generations
or today’s editors.

There are books
that age more quickly
than their authors.

For modern drama
the audience often needs a prompter.

Architects should live
in their own errors.

You learn from your own mistakes;
you profit from the mistakes of others.

We’ve almost abolished religion. –
Thank God!

What came first?
The chicken or the egg? – the rooster.

Even atheists believe in the devil.

The first shall be last –
the last will be next-to-last.

Perhaps Cain and Abel
weren’t brothers —
but good neighbors.

In the theater
the director is God,
but the actors are atheists.

Death is the natural end
of an unnatural life.

Suicide is the most radical form
of self-criticism.

He was so decadent
that he wanted to leave the world
the way he entered it.

Death hurts
those left behind.

I became a pessimist
upon learning that those around me
were optimists.

Both pessimist and optimist
live in a desert.
But the optimist is located in an oasis.

Whenever I read Kafka
I’m surprised at how idyllic
life was in his time.

One day all men will be equal:
equally rich or equally poor?

He who laughs last
laughs alone.

Žarko Petan

-Harry`s Film Impressions (5)

von am 15. November 2018 um 0:52
Veröffentlicht in: Text

Larry and Orson

We Americans who strive for elegance are invariably cowed by our British lingual non-compatriots.

The most beautiful British voice and delivery belong to Laurence Olivier. He is matched by our Orson.

The most beautiful American voice and delivery belong to Orson Welles. Orson proved that America English can be just as melodic and mellifluous as its British counterpart. Thank you Orson

Laurence Olivier

 

Male Deities and Love Goddesses

Rita Hayworth

A Male Deity or a Love Goddess should die young. We don’t want a Deity or a Goddess to age. When they age the cease to

be Divine. We don’t want them to marry, and God forbid that they should have children who would be anything but Divine! The last thing we want to do is shatter their Divinity by the intrusion of reality. They must cater to our fantasy. They should be worshipped from afar. Male Deities and Love Goddesses cannot be worshipped at close range.

Dying young means being young for all eternity

 

 

 

Dean the Drop-out of Drop-outs

He had the good luck of dying at the age of twenty-four. He personified the drop-out, who was too sensitive and uncompromising to cope with life, but he didn’t have much time to drop out. Life did him the favor of removing him from the scene. That is the most commendable way of being defeated. It is true that he did his part in exiting by recklessly speeding in his sports car.

Dean didn’t have the bad luck of surviving his accident with scars like Monty Clift, who went on to decline and die at the age of forty-five. Fate was even more unkind to Dean’s precursor Brando. His magnificent physique hit the skids along with his fiery rebellious mien.

Yes, Dean was lucky; he didn’t have to do the job himself like Marilyn. He died at the peak of his career with no bald spot or streaks of grey in his hair – and no paunch.

The option for an artist seems to be between longevity and becoming immortal.

Dean’s age for eternity, will always be twenty-four. Dying young is the best way of being done in by life.

James Dean

 

Looking for the John

Marlon Brando approached Darry Zanuck concerning The Egyptian. But when things were set, Marlon was on the set and asked for the toilet. He may have headed for the john and found it, he kept on walking until the set was far behind him. And he never returned.

He must have sensed that the film would be costume jewelry, which it turned out to be.

Marlon Brando

Zanuck was steaming and threatened to draw and quarter him, so Marlon relented and starred with Jean Simmons in the equally trite Desirée. His Napoleon was all swagger and fit in well to the mediocre proceedings.

Marlon’s One-Eyed Jacks, which he directed, was an okay western, but it was nothing to rave about.

In Mutiny on the Bounty Marlon directed director Carol Reed, who threw in the towel. Then he directed Lewis Milestone who lasted the film out. The result was in the celluloid pulp-fiction category.

Marlon’s search for the toilet at least saved him once.

 

 

to be continued . . .

– Herbert Kuhner

-Blackface

von am 11. November 2018 um 13:00
Veröffentlicht in: Poetry, Text

“Blackface” is not a slur.

Entertainers who put on black paint
were not putting African Americans down.

In the Twenties and Thirties
those who didn’t need paint
stepped forward
to do their own thing
in spite of Jim Crow
and all the impediments.

They have my admiration
and love!
For all the pain and problems we endured
being black men in America,
we really had some good times.
– Jo Jones

George helped get the ball rolling!

 

George Gershwin

George Gershwin,
composer,
piano player and pianist,
didn’t have to struggle much
before he caught on.
With people like
Paul Whiteman around to help,
how could he miss?
He was born with the knack
and poured it out easily
till his untimely death
at the age of 38 in ’37.

George was a Brooklyn boy,
who started out as a champion.
He was fastest on roller skates
on his block,
and he’d race along
in the short span
that was his allotment.

When you look at his photos,
you know
that he knew where he was going.
The sultry eyes convey the message.

His nose was a bit too thick,
he had slightly protruding lower lip
and too much jaw,
yet the over-all impression
was suave and hip,
and the clothes: spiffy and collegiate.

He wrote popular songs,
classical pieces,
a folk opera
and music for Broadway shows
and Hollywood films.

He was so prodigious
and worked on so many projects
at one time
that he had to juggle
in order to get things done,
and he got more than a lot done
in his short life.

In ’24, he took ten days to compose
Rhapsody in Blue
and kept it in his hands
till the last minute,
insisting that it wasn’t good enough.
Whiteman’s comment:
“The damn fool,
did he think he could improve it?”

Due to other commitments,
he had Ferde Grofé
orchestrate it.

Did George keep that hectic pace
because he had an inkling
that his life
would be nipped in the bud?

He was aware
of the significance of jazz
and his use of it was natural.

What he touched
turned to gold,
but he interrupted
the lucrative composing
of hit tunes and musical scores
in order to take time to study
music composition,
so that he could blend jazz
with classical forms.

To quote Marvin Hamlish:
„He took the European tradition
bequeathed to all composers
and poured his jazzy soul into it.“

Gershwin himself wrote:
„Jazz is not Negro but American.
It is the spontaneous expression
of the nervous energy
of modern American life.“

Let me humbly beg to differ:
jazz is black as well as American.

Paul Whiteman begged to differ:
“Jazz came to America
three hundred years ago in chains.”

It was the blacks who gave it to us,
but a lot of whites like Gershwin
became part of it
and he was also one
who gave blacks their due.

When Porgy and Bess was completed,
Gershwin stipulated
that it be performed by blacks,
and not in „blackface,“
thus dashing Al Jolson’s plans
to use it as a vehicle for himself
and turn it into a novelty.

That helped
put an end to blackface.
There’d be no more
taking off the color
in dressing rooms
after the show.

Jolson faded away
and Eddie Canter
had to can the black paint.

Blacks were doing
their own thing,
and audiences wanted to see and hear
the real McCoy.

In his last year
Gershwin wrote the score
for an Astaire-Rogers musical
Shall we Dance
and for an Astaire musical
Damsel in Distress
in which the great dancer
does a dance
with a set of drums
as a substitute for missing Ginger.

Fred was the interpreter
of the Thirties for Gershwin songs,
as well as for those of Porter, Kern,
Berlin and many others
and as far as dancing is concerned,
and did anyone come closer to flying
than he and Ginger?

Gershwin songs like
Lady Be Good and I Got Rhythm,
in addition to brightening
films and musicals,
are among the mainstay
of jazz bands and groups.

Gershwin died at the peak
of his creative powers.
What he could have done
had he been able to go on
remains in the field of fantasy.

There was never to be
an old George Gershwin;
there will always be
a young George Gershwin.

– Herbert Kuhner

George Gershwin