L.A. Confidential

A few weeks ago the LA Times did a special on films devoted to those situated in Los Angeles. This list had one caveat in that the films had to be released in the previous 25 years, which meant only pictures released from 1984 on would be considered.

Being a resident of Southern California I was immediately interested in examining the list. I was surprised to learn that I had seen only seven of the 25 films selected by the newspapers film critics. It was also easy for me to come up with a complementary list of twelve additional films, most of which I felt could have easily been substituted for some of the films on the Times' list. However, most impressive to me was their selection of L.A. Confidential as the most important film made during this period with a Los Angeles setting.

I would totally agree with that judgment and would note that L.A. Confidential would probably rank very high in any list of the best pictures over all during the time period specified. Surprising as it may seem, L.A. Confidential didn't win the best picture Academy Award for that year. That was the year of Titanic, a film that won several awards. Today, as an after thought, I checked the comparative merits of the two films and found that L.A. Confidential ranks much higher on rating lists.

Kim Basinger was the only Academy Award winner for a performance in L.A. Confidential, when she won for best actress in a supporting role. Basinger received nominations from several other groups and was named as either best actress or best supporting actress in two such groups. The BAFTA, the British equivalent to the Academy Awards named her best actress. All three of the male leads, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe received nominations from other award organizations with Spacey receiving two such nominations including a best actor win, while Pearce and Crowe received one nomination each.

The film was derived from a novel by James Ellroy which dealt with Los Angeles crime and law enforcement in the period shortly after World War II during the late 40's and early 50's. Ellroy's book, as with Academy Award winner Chinatown a few years earlier, borrows from some real LA history. The movie opens with a Christmas Eve jailhouse assault on Mexican-American youths that had occurred a few years earlier in LA. He used this thread to develop a story that delves deeply into police corruption, which was not a new, isolated event LA.

To develop this theme the film focused on four members of the police department, Ed Exley played by Guy Pearce, Jack Vincennes played by Kevin Spacey and Bud White played by Russell Crowe, plus in addition the Captain of the detective bureau, Dudley Smith played by James Cromwell.

The story is complicated and quite realistic until a shoot-out in the end involving various members of the police department. Though the later event is overdone, it doesn't take away from the central premise involving crime and law enforcement.

Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito and David Strathaim have important supporting roles as a call girl, a supermarket tabloid-type reporter and the operator of a high class call girl operation, respectively.

Basinger as Lynn Brackett is one of the call girl prostitutes who works for Strathaim. Strathaim as Pierce Padgett lives in a Richard Neutra designed house in the Los Feliz district which is locally famous as the Lovell Health House. DeVito as Syd Hudgens is a writer who knows all there is to know about crime and notoriety in the City. He has a working arrangement with Jack Vincennes where he gets a tip when an arrest is about to be made and in particular if the arrest involves illegal activity such as adultery, or a celebrity.

The film covers the interplay of all these people plus a series of other criminal types including the real life Mickey Cohen and Johnny Stompanato. The latter was particularly interesting because of his involvement with film star Lana Turner and his eventual real life shooting by Turner's daughter.

There are numerous critiques available on the internet discussing the details of the film. What I want to do here, however, is to discuss the roles and performances by those playing the three detectives.

Guy Pearce does an excellent job at showing he's a straight shooter but also is very clever at trying to get ahead and gain stature in the department. Both of these characteristics come out early and are easy to follow as the film progresses. By the end of the film he has had several opportunities to exhibit his smarts.

Russell Crowe, on the other hand, plays an entirely different character. He's a tough guy by nature and likes to lay his weight on antagonists. Not a nice man to run into if you are a criminal or if he perceives you to be an enemy. There is some background to his behavior, which helps to explain him but not justify it. He really does the brawler role well. He also has a fixation on helping women.

Kevin Spacey has a much more difficult characterization to establish. He likes the celebrity side. He's the technical advisor for a TV show much like the old Dragnet series with Jack Webb. Yet he can be tough if motivated, and is smart but not obviously so. He also has real moral character which you gradually become aware of. Essentially, he has to project a far more complex person.

My personal opinion is that he had the hardest role to successfully
interpret.

One last thought. The concept used in the films to have prostitutes look like film actresses is actually true. There was a call girl ring operated out of the Hollywood Hills that had prostitutes dress and make up to represent particular actresses. One very popular one at the time was Jean Harlow, the peroxided blonde bombshell who was perhaps the most recognized screen actress in the middle 30's. The actress portraying Harlow had her hair peroxided and was made up to look like the actress plus some other useful tricks.

L.A. Confidential is a really thought provoking film, and like many unusually good ones, takes several viewings to really understand its complexities.

Dick Gardner, Classic Films

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ROXIE HART

I wrote a review of this film back in 1986. The film was based on a play that hit the stage in 1926 and which was followed by a silent film version the next year. In 1975 Bob Fosse developed a new musical stage version of the story, which was quite successful. In 2002 this musical was made into the film. Chicago, starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Rene Zelweiger. The latter played the Roxie Hart role. It was a very successful film and winner of several Academy Awards.

Roxie Hart, though based on largely the same characters is a different film. In 1942 the production code was in full force and placed restrictions on what you could and couldn't do. For example, screen couples, married or not always slept in twin beds. Any hanky panky scenes set in the bedroom required that one or both of the performers have one foot on the floor. The important rule effecting Roxie Hart was if someone committed a crime, they had to suffer the consequences. In the 1942 film they got around this requirement by having the murderer the story was structured around being not Roxie, but someone else.

I noted in the beginning of my review that Roxie Hart had been on the AMC channel a couple of times recently. I remember being overwhelmed with laughter at the film's spoof of Chicago during the roaring twenties when I saw it the year it was released. My memory was good, for it is still one hulluva funny film. Ginger Rogers plays the brassy Roxie, a hoofer hoping to become a star and who is charged with the murder of one Mr. Casey. The attorney who is going to get her off, "They've never hanged a woman in this county yet," is Billy Flynn, played adroitly by a flamboyant Adolph Menjou. The romantic lead, if there really is one, was George Montgomery playing a young very romantic cub reporter, Homer Howard. The film is also blessed with a wealth of fine supporting players, including the dry Lynne Overman (Jake Callahan) a cynical older reporter, Phil Silvers a very brassy newspaper photographer named Babe, William Frawley (O'Malley) an easily swayed juror, George Chandler (Amos Hart) who is low in the credits but deserving much credit for his funny portrayal of a dumb, injured husband, and Iris Adrian (Two Gun Gertie) one of Hollywood's premier hard-boiled dames of that period, and not to forget, Milton Parson who plays a deadly serious cadaverish radio announcer. During the trial, which is covered live on radio, the sponsor is an advertising doctor. In one commercial, Parsons intones, "Write us about your gallstones," This and all his lines are delivered with an ultra-serious deadpan tone. These are all mixed together with such other old pros as Sara Allgood and Spring Byington in parodies of a ladies jail matron and a genteel lady reporter, Miss Sunshine, respectively. You can think of Roxie Hart as another look at the world that MacArthur and Hecht parodied so well in Front Page. Nunnally Johnson wrote the very clever script in this film and easily equaled the former's comedic approach to Chicago, booze and crime.

The film opens with Montgomery; he talks like Clark Gable throughout the film which was apparently a trade mark of sort that he used, telling a tale in a saloon on a rainy night in Chicago in what is in the time frame of the early '40s. He is a seasoned reporter who, while downing a couple of shots, and thereby getting in the mood proceeds to tell the story of "Roxie Hart," the greatest of them all. This takes us to a flashback to 1927 with our being greeted by a couple of gunshots behind a door and being followed by two more. Later we see the police grilling Amos, who readily admits having fire the gun. Callahan is covering the shooting for his paper, when he notices a woman climbing stealthily down the fire escape. He hangs up the phone he uses, and hurriedly goes into another room, shuts the door, where we see Roxie for the first time in the form of a gum-chewing floozy with curly brown hair (it's supposed to be red for this black and white film): Ginger Rogers. Callahan charges back into the room and manages to subdue Roxie after a spirited tussle.

After he has had a chance to talk to her, he learns that she is interested in becoming a stage star. He persuades her to admit to the crime in order to assist her in achieving this career goal. He also says he will be able to line up the undisputed top attorney of that era, Billy Flynn, to handle her case. Roxie goes for the deal, and her husband, willing to be let off from the crime he committed, cooperates.

Roxie goes to jail where she quickly becomes its most famous inmate. Callahan's paper is trumpeting the case, and Amos Hart has come with almost all the $5,000.00 Flynn wants to take Roxie's case. Flynn tells him to call Roxie's parents when he hasn't got all the money. He does, and her father tells him no. After he hangs up he tells her mother, "They're going to hang Roxie." "Didn't I tell you?" the mother replies and they both go back to reading and rocking while sitting on the front porch of their little farmhouse.

Roxie is interviewed in the jail after she has had a run-in with Velma (Helen Reynolds), another lady prisoner, resulting in a kicking, scratching and hair pulling fight which is broken up by Mrs. Morton, the matron (Sara Allgood in a completely out-of-character role for her). She knocks their two heads together and exclaims, "Children, Children" to the unruly pair. Despite this outburst the interview goes on smoothly with all the reporters and Flynn in attendance, and ends up with Roxie doing the Black Bottom with everyone there joining in. This is initiated by Callahan inquiring if her Black Bottom rendition has been well received. Roxie replies, "I ain't had any complaints yet." This is one of Roger's two dance numbers. Later on she does a nice little soft shoe routine on the metal stairway in the jail.

Flynn concocts a story for Roxie, which she memorizes. It implies that the shooting of Mr. Casey was an attack of self-defense; she and the gentleman were fighting for his gun. She came up with it, shot him and says, "Everything went purple." Callahan asks, "Was it lavender or violet."

The court scenes are a riot and include a fight between the district attorney and Flynn. "No one can call me that and live," shouts Flynn after being denounced as a lying, etc., etc. by the district attorney. As Flynn tears off his coat and prepares to give battle, he whispers in the bailiff's ear, "Grab me, Billy." Fortunately several other officers have grabbed the district attorney, so the latter is not able to assault the angry Flynn being held back by the bailiff.

Flynn has singled out the jury foreman, O'Malley, as ready to eat out of his hand. This becomes quickly obvious from the performance of old pro, Bill Frawley, who does his jury scenes using his complete repertoire of facial expressions.

The trial comes to its conclusion with Roxie on the stand describing the whole incident. She had claimed to be pregnant in jail after having been reduced to second fiddle following the incarceration of the notorious "Two Gun Gertie." "Got a match, Bud," Iris Adrian in the role queries Callahan in her best hard-as-nails voice. Earlier when he was in the witness chair, Amos had declared he has divorced Roxie (when she was in jail) because, "the little stranger was too much of a stranger." Now Roxie testifying to the end finally brings up her unborn child and collapses in tears on the floor in front of the jury box. Flynn picks her up, and as Babe orders the latest in his many interruptions of the trial to get pictures. You see the cameramen flashing their old-style explosive flashes, with Roxie smiling upside down as she is held in Flynn's arms.

Well, the conclusion is obvious. Roxie goes free, O'Malley would have hung the jury even if it had taken a lifetime. The films ends with Homer (Montgomery, who as you remember has been narrating the story) going out in the rain where his wife is waiting for him. Here we see Roxie behind the wheel with about five kids. The film closes with her telling him, "Honey, I think we are going to have to get a bigger car next year."

The pleasure of Roxie Hart is essentially in the dialogue and delicious overacting. The lines are witty and well delivered. Rogers and Menjou are particularly adept, but the supporting players do a lot with small, juicy roles. If you want to see a sparkling version of Chicago's classic twenties, this will be your cup of tea.

Dick Gardner, Classic Films

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THE THREE FACES OF EVE and SYBIL

These two films deal with 'DID' Dissociate Identity Disorder sometimes known as Multiple Personality Syndrome. This is a psychological condition whose victims live in a world of inhabited imaginery and very different and diverse personalities. In each of these films detailed examples are provided on just how the individual copes with and is aware of the different personalities that make up their character.

In the 1940's there was increasing interest among film-goers of psychological problems. This was especially true in 1945 when two separate films dealt with aspects of psychology. The American film Spellbound, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, examined a man suffering from Amnesia. Gregory Peck played the patient and Ingrid Bergman had the role of the psychiatrist who eventually identified what had brought on his condition which was related to a murder Peck had witnessed. Peck played an amnesiac again several years later in the intrigue film Mirage.

The second film of note in 1945 that had psychology as a primary focus was the English film The Seventh Veil. The problem in this film dealt with a concert pianist, Ann Todd who tried to commit suicide by throwing herself into the Thames. Herbert Lom was the psychiatrist who worked with her gradually pealing away the veils that she had placed around herself mentally to cope with her psychological problems. The seventh veil was the last one he pealed away to bring her freedom from her fears. James Mason, playing one of his dark roles was her music mentor in the film. Though like Spellbound this film was a major award winner it is not currently available in a video format. About the best a viewer can get is a spoof done on the Syd Caesar Show Of Shows with Caesar in the James Mason role, Howard Morris playing the psychiatrist Lom and the very funny Imogene Coca playing the unfortunate pianist. It had the very funny revised title of The Seventh Wail.

In 1957 two psychiatric doctors wrote and had published the story of one of their patients who suffered from multiple personalities. It was called The Three Faces of Eve. The film adaptation of this book was released that same year. It starred Joanne Woodward as Eve White, a mousy girl who was suffering from memory lapses. Her husband, played by David Wayne brought her to the two doctors to see what they could find out relative to her spells. Over time the doctors discovered that Eve White was inhabited by two alter ego's. The first of these was called Eve Black. Eve Black could be readily described as a wild girl completely different in character from Eve White. She went dancing, dressed in expensive clothes and drank. Further she made fun of Eve White and couldn't stand Eve's husband. In Eve Black you saw a personality very similar to the role played by Kate Blanchet in Shipping News. One Film Critic referred to Blanchet in this performance as a real old fashioned heller.

Eve White and Eve Black were not the end of the personalities. One day while in the doctor's office, and in response to a query, another person showed up. She didn't seem to know who she was but called herself Jane. Eventually, after further treatment, the Eve White and Eve Black persons disappeared and Jane was left as the only person in the triumvirate.

Joanne Woodward's performance is extraordinary. She makes the transitions effortlessly. Eventually, the doctors only have to ask for Eve White, Eve Black or Jane and she will instantly be the other personality. Woodward's performance was rewarded by her receiving the best actress award for 1957. The principal psychiatrist was played well by Lee J. Cobb. It turned out some events of her childhood had a traumatic effect on Eve's life. Most memorable was an insistence by her mother that she kiss her dead grandmother who was lying in a coffin in her home. Eve had strongly and nearly hysterically resisted this requirement but eventually gave in and performed what was an extremely odious task for the child.

In Sybil, Joanne Woodward returned to the multiple personality role this time playing the psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur, dealing with Sybil who was inhabited by a much greater group of personalities. Sally Field played this role and was nearly as good as Joanne Woodward was in the previous movie. She was awarded the best television actress award in the Emmy's for that year.

The film was based again on a book written by a psychiatrist who had initially treated the patient. This treatment that lasted for a period of over ten years. Early in the film we see Sybil acting as a teacher's aide in a school outing in a park. As we follow the sequence of events we note that she is very disturbed over a middle-aged woman pushing a child on a swing in the park. Gradually, we note her continuing agitation. Eventually we finding her standing ankle deep in a lake in the park with no understanding of why she is there and what brought on this bizarre behavior. That night at home she is recalling the event and humiliation when something she sees outside her apartment attracts her attention. She starts pounding on the window, breaking the glass, and cutting her hand.

She is taken to an emergency hospital where the hand is treated. Later we see Joanne Woodward talking to her there. Apparently, she had been acting strangely and the medical assistants working on her injury decide to call in psychiatric assistance. Woodward knows there is something deeply troubling the young woman, Sybil, and suggests if she ever would like to see her to call her at the phone number she provides.

Eventually Sybil is worried enough that she calls and makes an appointment. Much to Woodward's surprise the girl who keeps the appointment is the same girl, but very different. She is exquisitely dressed, and very outwardly conversational. She identifies herself with a different name and says she knows all about Sybil, but that Sybil doesn't know anything about her. Thus begins the series of consultations that will last over the next decade.

It seems that Sybil is occupied by more than a dozen personalities, some of which know each other and some of which don't. Two of these are boys, one of which is very belligerent. As Woodward peals away the veils surrounding Sybil she learns what awful things had happened to her as a child. Her mother was actually not rational and for some reason took a dislike to Sybil. She tortured her, some of the things are really awful, and made her life miserable. Her father ignored all these happenings. He was a deeply religious man and could not face up to the reality of his wife's insanity.

After long term treatment there is only one horror that Sybil has never revealed to Woodward. This was something that happened in what is referred to in the film as the green kitchen. After this is solved Sybil is required to face up to the fact that she has had all these personalities living within her who helped her survive in a world whose background was sheer horror. Woodward and Field go to the town where Sybil was raised and there in a park like setting she is brought face to face with the demons who have lived within her. These have been changed through the guidance of Woodward to become friends. They are all teenagers and they come out from behind trees where Sybil meets and hugs them. It is a rather dramatic ending.

In real life both Sybil and Eve managed lead more or less normal lives. Eve's real name was Chris Sizemore. Actually the solution to her problem didn't end with the three faces of Eve, later she acquired a number of other separate personalities. Usually these seem to come three at a time. She gave a lecture a couple of years ago at a university where she discussed her case. Accompanying her was her son Bob, who noted that he could tell by looking in her eyes when she had changed personalities, and there was one such personality that he didn't like.

Sybil was based on Shirley Ardell Mason; She eventually became an art teacher and is now deceased. Interesting enough, several of her personalities were artists. Examination of their individual works revealed that each personality used a different brush stroke when working on their artwork.

Sybil was originally a nearly 200 minutes long TV film. There are two different versions available on DVD one of which is 121 minutes and the second 132 minutes. To cut the film down to an approximately two hour production called for the complete elimination of some scenes. Though it isn't obvious when viewing the DVD that I saw, the complete film among other things fleshed out the relationship between Sybil's mother and father and provided more insight into their relationship.

Flora Rieba Schrieber who was Sybil's psychiatrist wrote the book the film is based on. One final thought. At one time in the film Sybil denies that all the horrendous details of her life were false, and that she had just made them up to impress psychiatrist Wilbur. Woodward proved to Sybil that they were not false and we learned that this denial was another one of Sybil's protection mechanisms in that she never trusted anyone after her terrible childhood.

There is controversy involving both Sybil's and Eve's stories, but there is no question over the remarkable performances of Joanne Woodward and Sally Field as the two young women with multiple personalities.

Dick Gardner, Classic Films

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HOLLYWOODLAND and THE BLACK DAHLIA

These two films reached the theatres in 2006. They share some of the distinct impressions that make up films devoted to life in Los Angeles and in particular those centered on that part of the city encompassed in Hollywood. Both dealt with some of the peculiarities of life in L.A. Though only one of these, The Black Dahlia, was a genuine crime, some of the events depicted in Hollywoodland also include criminal activities including a possible murder. I'll deal with both of these films relative to the events they depicted and the aspects that were literally fiction as opposed to the real world and in particular in its more sordid moments.


Hollywoodland

Hollywoodland deals with the death of television star George Reeves who portrayed Superman in the TV series of that name. Reeves reached the height of his film career earlier with an important film role in Gone With the Wind portraying the Tarleton Twin who married Scarlett O'Hara and who was killed early in the Civil War. After that supposed breakthrough role Reeves' career stagnated. Eventually, he got the Superman part, one he didn't really like and one he held until his untimely death from a gunshot wound, supposedly self-inflicted, but with enough controversy to invite a skeptical conclusion, i.e., the old conspiracy theory.

Hollywoodland covers this story with interest, but adds some special embellishments and details some of the unusual aspects to the story. These settle on the role of Toni Mannix in life. Ms. Mannix was the wife of one of the real strongmen in the MGM organization. In some respect he was considered an enforcer of studio policy. Ms. Mannix had met Eddie Mannix in Hawaii back in the middle thirties. She was a woman with a stage background most notably as a Ziegfeld chorine, under her maiden name of Toni Laneir. She was also known as the girl with the million dollar legs and had an uncredited role in The Great Ziegfeld film.

The three important roles portraying real people were performed by Ben Affleck as Reeves, Diane Lane as Toni Mannix and Bob Hoskins as Eddie Mannix. Each of them does a credible job at making the person they are portraying come to life. In particular, Land and Hoskins are really believable, and Affleck, though not as dynamic as the other two, did perform in one of his best if not his top performance.

The relationship between the three is quite remarkable. Toni and George met at a party where George in a continuing attempt to secure another top role manages to insert himself in a publicity picture take of Rita Hayworth at a nightclub party. Toni notes this and comments to him later about it without identifying herself. This chance encounter results in a long term affair with Toni providing Reeves with a house to live in and many other expensive gifts. She obviously was very much in love with the TV personality. Television back in the 50's was not nearly as big a career move as it would be today. At that time someone doing TV was obviously not strong enough to do films. Reeves resented this and was increasingly discouraged with his comic strip hero role. Eddie Mannix for reasons not explained in the film doesn't seem to mind Toni's interest in Reeves and in fact is involved with someone else as well. It's not an easy relationship to understand.

There is one other lead player in Hollywoodland, a man named Louis Simo played by Adrian Brody. For some reason Simo just doesn't come across. Perhaps it's became Brody is playing a fictional person in a film where most of the others are real. Simo is convinced that Reeves' death was a murder and spends most of the movie trying to prove it. This results in some beatings handed out by people under the order of Eddie Mannix. At the end he's still not convinced that it was a suicide, but is frustrated in his attempt to prove it.

The film, though not great, does tell an interesting story in an entertaining way. The photography is well done and the staging for the times, it represents, the late 1950s, is well done. There are enough good performances to make it an entertaining viewing.


The Black Dahlia

The story of Elizabeth Short, the real life Black Dahlia, has been addressed previously in film. What has been depicted is the ugliness of the crime, the finding of a young woman's body following her horrific murder. This was most notable in the film True Confessions (1982), where the depiction of the corpse and where she was found were covered. Actually this film, that starred Robert Duval as a Los Angeles Police Department detective and Robert DeNiro as his brother, who was a high official in the Los Angeles Catholic Diocese, is an entirely different story. The real story is about corruption in the Diocese and its discovery and the resulting punishment dealt to DeNiro. The film covers the relationship of the two brothers and DeNiro's role in the Diocese corruption case and Duval's involvement in that event with the Dahlia type murder being incidental.

Oddly enough in The Black Dahlia a similar bit of fiction is offered to supplement the murder. Here Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett play a couple of detectives (Lee Blanchard and Bucky Buckhost) in the LAPD who though working on other cases are eventually put on the Black Dahlia case. Eckhart has a girl friend in Scarlett Johannsen (Kay in the film) who he seemingly shares with Hartnett. It's not really one of Johannsen's better performances. Hilary Swank also plays a heavy in the film a young woman named Madeleine Lincott. Like Toni Mannix, she's very wealthy. Though her performance is okay, the role itself seems rather unreal. She apparently is a switch hitter with sexual interest in the Black Dahlia but also gets involved with Hartnett. That is about the sum of who is in the film except for Mia Kirshner who plays the 'Dahlia' to a certain extent in the way the girl lived her life as a drifter. It's a sad performance.

This film has the Black Dahlia performing in a stag film, i.e. porno production, something the real Elizabeth Short never accomplished. Though she was interested in breaking into the film business she didn't have the intestinal fortitude to work at gaining any recognition.

Some of the story is really completely unrelated to reality. James Elroy wrote the book the film is based on. It is far less successful than LA Confidential the really big film that just failed to win the Academy Award for best picture. Both the latter film and Mr. Elroy's Get Shorty really caught the mood of L.A. The Black Dahlia only marginally catches those nuances since the story itself is not as clever as Elroy's other two efforts. Elroy was particularly interested in the story, since his own mother was murdered in a somewhat similar fashion. It was a crime, somewhat like that of the Dahlia, and similarly, has never been solved.

Still, the film is not a waste of time. It is well shot and does a good job of depicting Southern California at the time, 1946. It certainly can be enjoyed, but it is not really a very close to the rendition of the Black Dahlia reality.

There is one other film that resonates with the Black Dahlia. That's the Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix film called the Blue Dahlia. It s a film noir from 1942 and is generally considered the source for the Black Dahlia name. Actually, the Blue Dahlia was a nightclub supposedly located on Sunset Strip. The film also involved murder.

I have a separate article that discusses the Black Dahlia murder in some detail, but also relates some aspects of the crime that were of particular interest to me. This article can be found in "Reflections on the Black Dahlia" on the Fairview Collaborative Website in their "Observations" section under the secondary listing called "Reflections."

Dick Gardner, Classic Films

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The Good Shepherd

Spy films have been a popular film genre for many years. They largely fit into either of two forms. In the first of these, which is typified by the various James Bond films, the spy is a slam bang tough and usually suave guy. These films are primarily action films, more interested in dramatic effect than actual story telling.

The Good Shepherd does not fit this description. It is more in the category of a serious, deeply involving setting where dialogue is far more important than action. The mysteries are genuinely complex and the endings usually tie all the loose ends into a logical package. The how we get to there is definitely more on the cerebral side.

There are two ways of addressing these types of spy films. One, and a very popular one is the focusing on an individual who is involved in spy and espionage activities without knowing what is really going on. One of the best of the early use of this technique was "The Thirty Nine Steps," made in the thirties. It starred Robert Donat as an everyman playing opposite Madeline Carroll neither of which was aware of what was going on either, though Donat was suspected of murdering a woman involved in espionage activities. A number of other films through the years used this format, most notably Alfred Hitchcock in several productions made in either England or the United States.

In the second method of developing films of this type the focus is on the mechanism of the spy business and addresses the procedures and processes used in spying and counter espionage. These kinds of films have been most successfully done for television as long series. Three good examples are the Alex Guinness television series on PBS where he plays the role of John LeCarre's deep thinking spy genius George Smiley. There were two of these films which appeared on PBS back in the late eighties and early nineties. In the first of these, Smiley was chosen by the head of British intelligence, referred to in the films as "Control." There is a mole, a term used to identify an enemy agent, who has infiltrated the system somewhere in the British Secret Service and who is providing information to Control's counterpart in Moscow. Smiley is giving the task of ferreting him out. This set of events is covered in the mini-series called "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy."

In a follow up series Smiley is now running the "Circus," which is the name used to identify the British Secret Service. He has a new objective, to turn Karla, the Moscow Center operator who set up the mole. 'Turn' is a term used by those in the spy business to get a member of the opposition government or spy agency to turn traitor.

In 1983, on PBS, there was an extremely interesting investigation of British intelligence from the period of the Russo-Japanese War (1905) until the mid-20's when the Communists were finally consolidating their power in Russia. The chief British spy in this series was the real life Sidney Reilly who was played by New Zealand actor Sam Neill in his first really large role. The series was called "Reilly, Ace of Spies." It's far longer than the George Smiley productions, and covers a different period of espionage activity, but it is every bit as interesting. Like the Smiley films it deals in part with the competition between Reilly and the head of the Soviet Intelligence system, Dzerzhinsky, played expertly by British actor Tom Bell. Reilly can be seen as rather full of himself. Because of his success in the spy business,Reilly eventionally sees himself rather pretentiously thinking that he might be able to overturn the Soviet government and see himself established as dictator of that nation.

The Good Shepherd deals with spy work much in the tradition of the three productions describe above. It doesn't have mini-series length, though it's more than two and a half hours running time provides some opportunities to examine issues in detail. The story is told mostly in flashback. It begins with Matt Damon in the role of Steven Wilson examining his participation in The Bay of Pigs venture during the Kennedy Administration and why it drastically failed. It seems apparent that there was an inside source, a mole, providing information to Fidel Castro, which provided the latter with information as to when and how the attack was going to take place. Also occupying Wilson's time, is an audio tape plus a photo that has come into his possession. In listening to the tape and studying the photo he continually seeks clues as to the tape and photo's source. This analysis occurs continually during the film using various electronic methods to reveal more clues.

In flashback Wilson considers his own life and dwells on the death of his father, by suicide, when he was just a child. His father had tried to impress on him one thing in particular, "Always tell the truth."

He also mentally addresses his career at Yale University, his participation in a secret society of that school, and his disgust at the hazing he is forced to go through along with other pledges which include such activity as being urinated on while participating in a mud fight. Among his contacts at Yale is a Poetry professor played by Michael Gambon who will have an influence on his life later. During this time he is also approached by Sam Murach played by Alec Baldwin, who holds an important role in American intelligence operations, and who tries to interest him becoming a part of the intelligence service.

Wilson is eventually recruited and vetted to London. While in London, Hitler's attack on Poland takes place in 1939 and the British declare war on the Germans. His old Yale Professor is there as well. The latter is now a member of British intelligence, and the two of them interface in joint British and American intelligence activities. It is while in London, however, that Wilson learns of the Professor's secret role as a suppler of intelligence to the Nazis.

During his time in Washington before posting to London Wilson has met Laura, played by Tammy Blanchard, a lovely young college age girl who is deaf. Though their relationship blossoms it doesn't result in anything beyond warm personal friendship. At approximately the same time he is put in contact with Clover Russell, the sister of one of his friends from Yale. She is a predator and obviously is either particularly smitten with Wilson or with young men in general. She is played by Angelina Jolie. They meet at a big party held at her parent's home. Later than evening she entices Wilson to go to the beach nearby where they get involved in a sexual liaison. Clover ends up pregnant and Wilson at the urging of his friend, Clover's brother, and his own sense of responsibility marries her. At the same time, Wilson is contacted again by Sam Murach and is requested to take the London intelligence assignment.

It is apparent through these and later events that Wilson is totally devoted to his work in American intelligence. His career moves ahead even though his personal and family life is largely destroyed. Clover becomes more and more reclusive and resigned to a life without love and affection.

Laura, the girl Wilson really loved finally has a liaison with Wilson which ends up in their being photographed by orders of a Russian spy who is supposedly a defector from the Soviet Union, but actually is neither a defector or who he says he is.

Laura is devastated by the photo's and goes out of Wilson's life. She really is the one person he feels affection for. Later, Wilson's son gets involved in an affair with a woman who he wants to marry, and who Wilson discovers is being used by the same Russian agent. At the film's close Wilson is given the opportunity of becoming an important cog in the expansion of the CIA and thereby cementing his commitment to the spy business.

The film would seem to reflect that spying, as an occupation, is not nearly as exciting as it might seem to be. Wilson, and I suppose many other member's of this service, end up having to sacrifice much of what makes life worth living.

Damon is very effective in his performance. Only once or perhaps twice did he show his characteristic half smile. His performance was all seriousness. Robert DeNiro, who directed the film, has a small role as an American general. He is just one of many strong cast members, though his role is not that big. John Turturro is especially memorable as an American enlisted man assigned to Wilson in London. Later on he has a pivotal role including initiation of a beating while interrogating a Russian defector who claims to be the same man as the earlier defector. Wilson plays a critical role in following this up and learns that the man posing as the defector is not who he claims to be, and the man who took the beating is the real defector.

There are only two other scenes of violence and both appear off camera. These include the beating to death of a Nazi spy and the murder of a girl used as a tool by the Soviets in trying to blackmail Wilson. Somehow, neither of these events seem that realistic to me, but of course I'm not involved in the secrecy game so they may be right on.

The Good Shepherd is a highly recommended film if you like films that are steady and take concentration to fully understand what is happening and where it will end. Despite it's large cast, only two people have major roles, Matt Damon as Wilson and Angelina Jolie as his wife.

Dick Gardner, Classic Films

Read the 25th Anniversary Edition of Classic Films No. 16, February 1983

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The Good German

During the two decades of the 40's and 50's a new kind of film style was developed. The French, who had been deprived of many American films in the early 40's during the occupation by Nazi Germany, adopted the term, "Film Noir." They came up with the phrase to describe a kind of film that was different in various ways. First these films were most notably photographed in black and white and featured dark shadows and a feeling of menace. Generally their stories evolved around the seamier sides of life. Most of these were crime films shot in this stark black and white style. In addition, there were a few that were devoted to war in the more corrupt sense, though it is difficult to see war as anything but corruption on a grand scale and as a demonstration that once again diplomacy and common sense have failed.

The first film to be described as film noir was the now famous crime drama starring Humphrey Bogart and a crew of other outstanding actors and actresses. It was the third try at depicting the perversity in Dashiell Hammet's novelistic style with the same basic storyline. It was called "The Maltese Falcon." Hammett had written quite successfully up to then for the popular pulp magazine's that provided fast moving short stories in a variety of environments and most particularly in a criminal environment . Most critics, though not all, consider this 1941 production as the first true film noir. The nearly 20-year history of film noir is generally considered as ending with Orson Welles direction and acting in the "The Touch of Evil" a film of corruption and darkness supposedly shot on the American-Mexican border but which was actually filmed in the then seedy Los Angeles district near the ocean known as Venice.

In between these 1941 to 1958 milestones more than a score of other films were qualified as genuine film noir productions. Just a few of these included such classics as "The Big Sleep," which again starred Humphrey Bogart in a classic story of intrigue and murders. This story was derived from the Raymond Chandler novel of the same name, a name which Chandler created as a euphemism for death. Chandler scored with several other of his tight novels including "Murder My Sweet," starring Dick Powell in his initial excursion outside his usual film roles as a singer in Busby Berkeley type musicals. This film was remade a few years later under the title Chandler had originally written it under, "Farewell My Lovely." Both films featured the same private eye, Philip Marlowe.

A number of other films were produced in this kind of crime environment and a few more were delivered to movie theater goers with intrigue type plots. Graham Greene and Eric Ambler were the principal writers in this genre which included such gems as "The Mask of Demetrious" featuring two veterans of the Maltese Falcon, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre against the legendary Balkans villain Demetrious, played by Zachary Scott . "Journey Into Fear" was another of this type along with "The Third Man" perhaps the greatest film noir of all. The latter and the previously identified film saw Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton as leads. Cotton plays a somewhat befuddled man not sure of what is going on in both films while Welles is a Turkish Secret Service Director in the former and the film's villain, Harry Lime in the second.

This somewhat long introduction brings us up to considering the "The Good German" which was described in its ads as a film of the past with all the qualities that marked the film noir of some 50 or so years earlier. In some respects it most resembles the "Third Man" dealing with corruption after the finish of World War II fighting in Europe. While the Third Man was set in Vienna the "The Good German" finds us in a suburb of Berlin located in the Soviet occupational area. It is the time of the Potsdam talks. This was a three power meeting between Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Harry Truman. The man who provides a sort of Joseph Cotton persona in The Third Man is played by George Clooney. Clooney is Jacob "Jake" Geismer a newsman attached to one of the news services who is there to cover the talks.

The U.S. Military has furnished Clooney an American officer's uniform to facilitate his passage between the Soviet and American occupation zones. It has also provided him with a driver, Tobey Maguire playing an American soldier, Patrick Tully, who we quickly learn is the epitome of corruption. He's dealing in the Black Market and is also involved in other shady deals. Tully has a mistress, a German girl named Lena Brandt played by Cate Blanchett. As an example of Tully's corruption he offers Brandt to Geismer if he wants to sleep with her.

When Geismer first sees Brandt in a shady bar it is obvious that he is very surprised. It develops that she worked for him when he was assigned to Berlin by an American news magazine before the war. Actually, she was more than just an employee since they had a sexual relationship as well. Finally we meet one more important player, Beau Bridges as American Colonel Muller. Muller has a key role in American occupation forces. He is trying to locate high level German scientists to get them to go to the United States before the Soviets get them into Russia. He is particularly interested in one scientist, a man who had an important role in the development of German rocket science, and specifically in the V2's that went up into the stratosphere and came down in Britain where they exploded with great effectiveness.

Lena Brandt has an important role in this scenario since her husband worked for the rocket scientist. She declares both her husband and the rocket scientist are dead. The film primarily deals with the search for both men, and a murder that is of particular interest to Geismer.

Tully has agreed to try and help Lena get out of Germany. He deals with both the Russians and Colonel Muller. The scenario is involved in that Muller assigns Tully to be Geismer's driver because he knows of the latter's pre-war relationship with Lena. He is hopeful that their pre-war relationship will lead to the location of Lena's husband and from him to the rocket scientist. Neither the Russians or the Americans really believe the two men are dead, but believe they are in hiding somewhere.

Geimer finally learns the truth from Lena and agrees to try to aid in her escape from Berlin. The closing scene is at an airport where the two talk together and a U.S. Military transport, the very familiar DC-3, warms up in the background. It's a nice touch to recall this same setting from "Casablanca." where Bogart says goodbye to Ingrid Bergman. It is a telling moment in "The Good German" for it is at this moment that Lena tells Geismer of her corrupt war time activities .

"The Good German" is a very successful invoking of the film noir technique. The lighting is outstanding with heavy shadows. The story is quite interesting, and the principles, primarily Maguire and Blanchett perform their roles to perfection. The film is a welcome addition to the repertoire that makes up the film noir genre.

Dick Gardner, Classic Films

Read the 25th Anniversary Edition of Classic Films No. 15, January 1983

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Charles Coburn and Jean Arthur

In the early 1940's Charles Coburn and Jean Arthur were co-starred in two of the finest comedies of that period. Coburn had been well received in the 1940 film "The Lady Eve" playing card shark Handsome Harry Harrington. In 1941 Colburn and Arthur were matched in the superb comedy "The Devil and Miss Jones." It was a period when labor strife was an important part of American culture and organizing workers was at the forefront. Two years later the two were reunited again another really fun comedy. By then the U.S. was involved in World War II. This picture was devoted to the home front, but was centered on life in Washington, D.C. and the problems entailed in going to that city in those days. Coburn received the best supporting actor award for "The Devil and Miss Jones." The similarities between the acting styles required for each film indicated that they could be properly reviewed in tandem.

The Devil and Miss Jones

Charles Coburn, as J.P. Merrick, is one of the world's richest men, a millionaire many times over with investments and operations in many areas. One of his properties is Neeley's, a big department store in New York city. There are problems at Neeley's. Many employees are disgruntled at not being treated fairly and are in the process of trying to get organized into a union. Merrick wants to get to the bottom of this union movement and hires a detective to snoop on the employees. When this plan falls through, he decides to get himself a job at the department store and do his own spying. He gets hired under an assumed name, Tom Higgins, but has problems right off the bat. First, he learns he was just able to pass the stores minimum standards relative to intelligence.

Problem number two occurs when he arrives at the store for his first day of work. He is assigned to Mr. Hooper, (Edmund Gwynne). Mr. Hooper is one of those supervisors who we all come up against at sometime in our careers, a low level supervisor with a strong inclination to throw his weight around. Mr. Hooper's area is shoes, but because Higgins/Merrick scored so low on the intelligence test he assigns the latter to slippers. There, Higgins meets Mary Jones played by Jean Arthur in one of her typical cheery helpful roles. She fills him on the routine and explains how to deal with Hooper, and lets him know when the lunch hour occurs. Merrick has a stomach problem which he tries to control by eating only graham crackers. When he tells her this she misunderstands the reason for his eating graham crackers and thinks he is just to poor to afford lunch. In sympathy, she forces him to accept a half dollar from her to pay for a regular lunch.

Robert Cummings is Arthur's romantic interest, Joe. At about this time, Joe creates a disturbance by chaining himself to radiator and starts yelling union propaganda at the top of his lungs. He doesn't work for Neeley's and is promptly escorted out of the store by William Demarest, who you might remember as one of Preston Sturgis' favorite actors.Miss Jones persuades Higgins to go to lunch with her. She introduces him to fellow employee, Elizabeth (Spring Byington), in a role not typical of her. Higgins is taken with Elizabeth and asks her to sit with him. Then, despite his stomach problems, he promptly eats all of her homemade tuna sandwiches. In their discussions, he makes up a history of long time employment at two different stores with layoffs between jobs.

Higgins'/Merrick's friendship with Miss Jones continues to grow. For one, he meets Joe and learns he is Jones' boyfriend. The three of them go to a Union meeting at the insistence of Joe and while there Jones gets up and makes an impassioned speech where she describes Higgins unfortunate situation, 55 years old, only two long term jobs, and includes his supposed poverty by her providing him with 50 cents for lunch and his having eaten all of Elizabeth's sandwiches because of hunger. The next days events include the failure of a setup that Merrick had worked out to sell some of the stores shoe inventory that can't be sold. This is very funny in that the buyer is a 12 or 13 year old girl that Merrick's servant at his mansion, played by S.Z. Sakall has brought to the store. The girl is a real brat and impossible to work with and forces Merrick to go through all kinds of gyrations to get her into a pair of shoes.

Impossible to imagine, but Higgins is persuaded by Jones to join her and Joe along with Elizabeth for an afternoon at Coney Island. There, jam-packed in with thousand's of beach lovers Higgin's whole life seems to unwind because of some unwitting mistakes. Eventually he ends up in court facing a charge which Joe makes even worse by launching an oppressing the workers speech. This is followed by a closure that finds the union organizers led by Joe having a meeting with Neeley's Board of Directors to discuss the Unions objectives. This is also done very cleverly with the board members thinking Mr. Merrick is sitting with them and the union organizer's thinking he is sitting with them. As you might expect, this results in the happy ending we knew was coming, but in a different fashion than we would have imagined. The film is dominated by Arthur with her characteristic way of delivering lines and with Coburn doing the same with his material.

The More, the Merrier

Two years later found Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn again in another new refreshing comedy. The setting is 1943 and deep into American participation in World War II. At that time the nation's capital was bursting at the seams with the growth in government employees and military personnel required for the successful prosecution of the War. The result was to make housing extremely difficult to come by. Jean Arthur plays Connie Milligan a secretarial type with an apartment in Washington. To help her make ends meet she has decided to sublet her two bedroom apartment and take in a border. Meanwhile Coburn in the role of Benjamin Dingle has come to Washington to contribute his expertise to the war effort. He is a retired millionaire. In those days, a millionaire was equivalent to a multi-millionaire today. Coburn is a dollar a year man. A dollar a year man, contributed his services to the government at the maximum income of $1.00 for a year's work.

Well, Mr. Dingle has discovered that though he wants to help the war effort, he is entirely unsuccessful at finding a hotel room. After struggling from place to place he spots Arthur's ad for a roommate. He goes to the apartment address while she is at work. He discovers a long line of prospective candidates for the room. Mr. Dingle's success in his work career was in motivational speaking. He featured a slogan "Damn the torpedo's, full speed ahead," which had been adopted in a previous American conflict. He puts this slogan to work this time by telling those waiting in line that the room has been rented, and proceeds to remove the rental sign. When Arthur comes home he convinces her of his trustworthiness and is accepted as her new tenant. She provides him with a list of special directions relative to using the bathroom, eating breakfast, and sharing these two facilitates. Coburn is really impressed with the list. Their resulting discussion is very entertaining.

Also arriving at Washington at this time is Joel McCrea playing Army Sergeant Joe Carter. Carter is carrying with him a new propeller concept which he is under orders to deliver to testing authorities. The propeller is quite large, about as tall as he is. If you recall Mr. McCrea, you will probably remember that he is well over 6 feet tall.

He is also having housing problems in Washington and fortuitously makes contact with Mr. Dingle who offers him the opportunity of sharing half of his sublet for a nominal rental fee. Miss Milligan is really shocked at this state of affairs and a long period of persuasion is built in the film to resolve this problem. She first becomes aware of Carter when she hears him singing in the bathroom while bathing. It is obvious what the end result will be. Three people sharing a two bedroom apartment are bound to have some difficulties in adjusting. As you may remember from "The Lady Eve," there are two long seduction scenes involving Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.

There is a similar one in this film. In this case the seducer is Joel McCrea, and the recipient of his efforts is Jean Arthur. McCrea does a very fine portrayal of a man showing a single lady what love is all about and what the future might include. Arthur is single, and not only that is engaged to a conservative gentleman of 42 who wears a toupee. This seduction starts on the sidewalk as they are walking home and they observe other couples in war time, where things are often different, enjoying the pleasures of romance. She is luxuriously dressed in a formal evening gown. They had come together accidentally, and as they near home he finds himself more and more enchanted with her loveliness. He strokes her bare shoulders and whispers sweet nothings in her ear and eventually begins to kiss her as well. She tells him of her plans to marry her Mr. Pendergast who is older and steadier. Eventually they reach the front steps of her apartment building. Finally, she realizes that despite her enjoying his attentions, caresses and kisses, he is interfering with her lifetime plans. Like Wendy Hiller in "I Know Where I'm Going," common sense eventually takes control of her. Mr. Dingle has been encouraging this match making and following his own philosophy of "Damn the Torpedo's, Full Speed Ahead," his influence causes Miss Milligan to give up her dreams with very practical Mr. Pendergast for a far more romantic dreams with Joe Carter.

****

As a whole, the two films make a nice complementary double feature. Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn were both outstanding film performers. It's difficult to think of Arthur without two of her finest roles, as an entertainer in the Howard Hawks All Star production in 1939 "Only Angels Have Wings" and of course her wonderful performance as Van Heflin's wife in "Shane," a film that also is probably Alan Ladd's finest effort. Coburn made one other memorable comedy performance as mentioned earlier in "The Lady Eve." He is also remembered for one of his untypical roles as the sadistic doctor who amputated Ronald Reagan's legs in "Kings Row."

Dick Gardner, Classic Films

Read the 25th Anniversary Edition of Classic Films No. 14, December 1982

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