India in Films

Two recent films set in the India of modern times aroused my curiosity as to some of the film milestones dealing with the subcontinent. The two recent films were "Eat, Pray, Love," starring Julia Roberts and "Outsource" which deals with the modern American problem of providing jobs to people in other nations who can perfrom the work far cheaper than comparable American labor. I liked both films equally, though the latter is much more observant of present day situations. The Julia Roberts film is actually an abstract addressing of a problem which occurs far more often than is usually realized, that of trying to find out who and what we are when we reach middle age and are for some reason are un-satisfied with our life. And one other modern film to consider is one of the so-called Bollywood Films. There is a very entertaining one out called "Bride and Prejudice," that includes some big production numbers and some original songs including "The Cobra Dance," and "What's Life, Without Wife." Both of these are uproaringly entertaining and feature performances by some of the Indian equivalents of the Bennett sisters including the remarkably beautiful green eyed Ashirya Rai.

However this is to be more of a review of what India has meant at various times during the filming of life in that country. The earliest films in my memory were those of the 1930's which examined life in India in what were essentially escapist films. These largely dealt with experiences with the RAJ and the British citizens who had come to India to help rule that vast and complex society. These were largely war films involving the British soldiers with renegade members of Indian society mostly those in the Northwest or what was then called the Indian Frontier. This area was largely in the Kashmir that area of India that in recent history was divided between India and Pakistan and not to successfully.


There are several pictures in this genre including "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" among others. In one Shirley Temple managed to play a role in bringing cooperation between the rebellious natives under the rulership of Cesar Romero, a hard to picture role assignment. Of the the several RAJ films made of this period one alone stands out, "Gunga Din."

GUNGA DIN (1939)

Gunga Din was a film that use a poem of Rudyard Kipling to create an original story. It dealt with rebellious elements in the northwest frontier. The films Indian landscape was largely re-created using California's Owens Valley. The savage jagged Sierra Nevada range in this area capped by the tallest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mt. Whitney, serves well as a mock Himalayans even though this range is half as tall. The Alabama Hills at the base of the range and the flat areas of the Owen's valley serve equally well as the imagined landscape in India.

The film's three male lead stars, Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Victor McGlaughlin provide a viril set of leads. Joan Fontaine, in love with Douglas, is the sole female performer of note in the film. The two villans, Edwardo Cianelli, as the leader of the rebellious group of fanatics and Abner Biberman as his main lieutenant are equally effective, in particular Cianelli, whose proclamation of "The Error of False Pride," provided a chilling initiation of torture to captured Brits. San Jaffre in the role of Gunga Din provides the glue to hold the whole thing together. It's a wonderful adventure story, with beautiful natural scenery, thuggery at it's worst, gallant horsemanship, elephants, and great battle scenes at both big and small combat level all add to the enjoyment of the film. There is enough humor to add to the pleasure and the nice ending where a faux Rudyard Kipling quotes the poem Gunga Din is a touching scene. This is really one of the great adventure films to come out of the thirties.

THE RIVER (1951)

This is a truly beautiful film directed by Jean Renoir and based on a story put together by he and Rumer Godden. The story has autobiographical touches based on Godden's life in India when a teen. Financing was arranged by a man who had never produced a film before and who would never produce one again. While the financing and other matters of importance were taken care of Renoir started to shoot one year earlier. This effort mostly concerned the river, The Ganges in this case, and the people who lived and worked in the areas on the rivers shores.

The story is concerned with the life of three young, i.e. teen age girls. The first of these is Harriet who is the oldest of four sibling sisters, two of which are twins, and a single brother Bogie. Harriet was played by Patricia Walters in her first and only film role. Somehow Renoir had seen her and thought she would be perfrect having lived in India all of her short life, she being only 14 at the time. The second girl, Valerie, is two or three years older. She's a 17 year old and more sophisticated than Harriet. She was played by the experienced actress, Adrienne Corri, who had flaming red hair. Corri played one of the victims of the vicious boys in "Clockwork Orange" film. The third girl was an Anglo-Indian by the name of Rahda who plays Melani. The's a particularly beautiful girl and is a little more sophisticated than the other two but also more conflicted because of her Anglo-Indian ancestry. Her father was a Brit, played by the familiar Arthur Shields. Her mother was a deceased woman of Indian ancestry. It should also be noted that the beautiful Nora Swinburn plays Harriet's mother.

The story is centered on these three girls and their relationship to each other. An American G.I. has an important impact on their lives, in that all three decide they love him. The soldier, played by Thomas E. Breen, is handicapped bu the loss of a leg which occurred during the recently ended World War II. The three girls friendship is based on particular relationships. Harriet's father runs the Indian Hemp factory for Valerie's father. Melani is a next door neighbor of Harriet's and actually a niece of the American war veteran.

The story plays out beautifully and all the relationships are resolved. There is also a tragedy in the film which I won't discuss here. The American finally decides to leave and tells Melani I can't stand living anywhere where I am constantly reminded of my handicap. She replies very intuitively from her own status as a bi-cultural person, "Where will you find a county of one-legged men."

This film is highly recommended for it's beautiful color, it was considered the finest color film production up to that time. Most memorable is an abstract segment of the movie dealing with Melani. In keeping with Indian tradition she has been betroved to a man she doesn't hardly know while being deeply in love with another. In the film within a film segment she is beautifully dressed and brought forward to meet her husband to be. Her eyes are covered and when the covering is removed she sees before her the man she really loves. Then suddenly a metamorphosis takes place and she is re-costumed in beautiful traditional Indian style and the young man turns into a replication of the Indian God Krishna. Melani proceeds to dance for him a really beautiful very stylized dance. It is a memorable moment.

JEWEL IN THE CROWN (1984)

Jewel in the Crown is a very special film in the group that we are discussing since it was originally a twelve hour presentation on the magnificent PBS Masterpiece Theatre program. It covers a period from shortly before the World War II conflict into the partition of India into the two separate states Pakistan and India. It closely delves into the relationships of the native people of India and the colonial people who rule the country.

The Jewel in the Crown represents India as a part of the British Empire which is represented by the crown. Peggy Ashcroft in her role as Barbie Batchelor in the film explains this near the films beginning.

The film covers several different stories the most important of which is that of a young English woman who lives with her Aunt in India. She's a Brit. with out pretence relative to her relationship with Indian people. She happens to meet and eventually fall in love with a native Indian, Hari Cumar played by the very handsome Art Malik. This is a doomed relationship because of the prevailing class concious bigotry of the British living in India at the time. The worst of these is Tim Piggot Smith playing a British official and Army Officer Captain Ronald Merrick who is not from the wealthy or aristocratic class. For various reasons he particularly takes his bigotry out on Malik. Malik as Hari Cumar has a different background having been educated England in the British University system. He was accepted there, changed the spelling of his name to anglicize it, played cricket, etc. He was financed by his uncle who when he suffered financial reverses had to stop helping Malik's education forcing the latter to return to India.

This is just one of the stories developed in the series. There is a portion on the fighting of the Japanese in Burma. A portion devoted to Brit's living in the hilly area of Kashmir and their lifestyle and their relationship to the native Indians. The relationship of the titled and wealthy Indians with the poor who mainly live in the country. The relationship between the Hindus and Moslems and in particular the killings that resulted when the two groups have to migrate from the where they previously lived to the new area where people of the same religion were congretated.

There is sexuality and exploitation, homosexuality and depravation and all the reality of real life. Jewel in the Crown is a product of the finest period of Masterpiece theatre productions most memorably "I Hadrian," "To Serve Them All My Days," "Brideshead Revisited" and a whole series of other outstanding long programs.

STAYING ON (1980)

It should be noted that a follow up film was made several years later called "Staying On." It starred Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson as a British couple who did not leave India when the exodus of Brits occured after the separation of the country into two different states. Their relationship to each other and to the newly enfranchised Indians is noteworthy. It was also the first time the two leads had worked together on a film since their acclaimed World War II effort "Brief Encounter." The latter is covered in an excellent review by Des Kennelly, the former editor of Classic Films, in the first edition of that publication back in 1981.

PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984)

Chronoligically this film was produced shortly after Jewel in the Crown. It's setting is some twenty years earlier. It starts with a journey to India by Peggy Ashcroft as Mrs. Moore, the mother of a British legal professional, Nigel Havers, who is stationed in India. Accompanying Ms. Ashcroft is the Australian actress Judy Davis in the role Adele Quested, Haver's fiance.

Things are complicated in that most of the British are so caste oriented as to be unable to accept Indians in any form as being culturally equal. Havers is one of these, his mother and fiance it turns out are not. A conflict develops but at a very low key. An Indian lawyer Aziz, Victor Bannajee, meets Mrs Ashcroft and because of her acceptance of all becomes friends with her. Their friendship ends up in Davis being drawn into the relationship as well.

Shortly before the halfway point of the film Bannerjee, as host, takes Ashcroft and Davis to visit the Marabar Hills to see a large group of caves there. His planning includes riding on an elephant and a picnic lunch. Somehow, in the visit to the caves Davis undergoes a peculiar set of fears which result in her running from the cave and stumbling and falling while running down the hill to the area below the caves. This results in Bannerjee being charged with attempted rape. Davis, in her distress, is not able to address the issue at all. At the Court Trial over Bannerje's guilt, Davis when finally brought in to testify says she has no memory of the incident and cannot describe what really happened. This results in the freeing of Bannerje.

The film includes such stalworts as Alec Guinness playing a sort of Indian mystic Godbole, and Art Malik playing a beligerant Indian attorney defending Bannerjee. You may remember Malik from Jewel in the Crown playing the unfortuante Hari Kumar, or more recently having a role in the new Upstairs Downstairs series.

Not everything is rectified. The conclusion includes the death by natural causes of Peggy Ashcroft on board an English ship returning to England, and the denunciation of Davis by the inbedded British government population. "Bitch," one angry English matron calls her. Bannerjee, greatly angered by Davis's turning on him or so it seems to him and anger with James Fox playing an English educator, Mr. Fielding for an incident that never happened, has withdrawn from public life and broods about how he was treated unfairly. The final minutes are devoted to James Fox who was one British colonial who was realistic about the Indian people, informing him the Davis is living in England alone. Bannerjee writes her a letter and we see her reading it looking as enigmatic as Davis can easily manage to do.

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2004)

In the last few years a whole new set of pictures have come out about India and it's peoples. Most memorable are "Outsourced," and "Eat, Pray, Love," which stars Julia Roberts. However, I would also like to comment on a new type of film about India, the so-called Bollywood films. These are usually big colorful films with lots of activity, music and color. The one that comes most to mind is, "BRIDE AND PREJUDICE,' which translate the Jane Austen novel into a Indian film. Darcy is played by a rich American and the bride is Indian. It has a couple of really neat musical numbers, one of which called "The Cobra Dance" done by one of the sisters called Bakshi in this film. The second is a play on words called, "What's Life Without Wife" in which the sisters discuss the importance of being a wife. Ashiyara Rai is the principal Indian player in this delightful colorful film.

OUT SOURCED (2006)

This really fun film without a cast of well known performers familiar to American audiences deals with that most singular problem, of replacing American employees with much less expensive employees from developing countries. I have experienced this on many occasions. The most entertaining of these was an outsource to Salvador in Central America. The contact was very willing to answer questions about his work and El Salvador. In the movie the outsourcer is a Seattle company that markets a bunch of novelty items. One such example is the large cheese hats worn by Green bay Packer fans.

Todd Anderson, a mid-level manager at a Seattle company selling novelty items is told by his boss, Dave that the work he supervises, a phone bank of order takers, is going to be outsourced to India and that he, Todd, has been selected to go to India to setup the new department and train the Indian phone answering people. This meeting between Todd, Josh Hamilton, and Dave, Matt Smith, is the introduction to a very funny film discussing a modern day problem, Out Sourcing. Todd's response is "no way." However, when he learns his job has disappeared and there won't be any work remaining for him in Seattle he reluctantly agrees to go. From the time of his arrival his experiences in India are real eye openers. For example, the man who is supposed to meet him holds up a sign that says "Toad" resulting in Todd missing his Indian contact. Later the man his new Indian Assistant, Purobit, played by Asif Barna finally connects with him.

It does not take long for Todd and the film viewers to realize how different life is in India including the differences in acceptable behavior. Early on, when addressing the group of some twenty people who have been hired and he is teaching them American ways, one of the new hires tells him, "That maybe he needs to spend some time learning Indian Ways."

It does not take long for both Todd and Purobit to realize that one lady in particular is smarter and more comprehending than the others. Over time the American supervisor tends to rely more and more on her, the lovely Asha played by Ayesha Dharkar. Many strange things happen in India. One most memorable incident involves a shipment of theirs which ends up being sent to another city of the same name. He has to retrieve it and she is asked to accompany him because of her knowledge of both languages. It involves a train trip followed by a boat trip. Unfortuately, the boat has problems on the way back and they are forced to spend the night in the city. The hotel has only one room left, the Bridal Suite. the consequences of this incident is that the two of them get much better acquainted.

Eventually the boss in Dave arrives in India to check on the call center. He is given a demonstration of how well they are doing and in a special incident sees what the number one girl, Asha. can do handling a difficult order. There is a second reason whyhe has come to India. The the company has decided to move the outsourcing site to China and that Todd will have to go there next. The latter manages to convince Dave that the demonstration of how well they are doing in India is really the result of the assistant manager. Purobit is easily talked into going to China wants he realizes it means a raise which will enable him to afford to marry the girl he has been engaged to. Asha and Todd have one last time together. She has explained to him that her parents have already arranged a marriage for her and that she is just waiting for her fiance to have enough money to pay for a wedding. In a clever ending she demonstrates to him that she indeed can do anything.


EAT, PRAY, LOVE (2010)

I would be the first to admit that Julia Roberts has never done much for me. Of all her films the only one I really liked was "Notting Hill," with Hugh Grant. EAT PRAY LOVE is essentially her film. It takes place in New York, Rome, India and Bali. the Eat Pray Love segments are Rome, India, and Bali in that order. The New York part is the setup for what follows, why she makes this particular journey. She is Liz Gilbert, early middle aged, 40, and unhappily married. The unhappiness is centered in she and her husband not having much in common or enough love to sustain their relationship. She is a well off successful author. She finally makes the decision of traveling to help over come her malaise.

In Italy, principally in Rome and Naples, she meets a mixed group of people and finds out that she really enjoys doing things with them. They enjoy life, food and their well being. She eats like it is going out of style. In her journey to Naples she goes with the principal girl from her group of friends, Tuva Novotny. They are at a Neapolitan pizza parlor, where I guess pizza was invented, and her friend says I can't eat this I am getting to fat and my friend will see it and be turned off. Roberts notes, you are developing a muffin top on your tummy. You needen't worry, when he wants you take your clothes off your companion will be so entranced that he will never notice it.

From Rome she travels to India where she plans to develop a sense of peace and calm. She is in a group, mostly non-Indians who work on contemplation and prayer. Some times you are given a special assignment, of complete silence. While there she meets Richard Harris, Richard of Texas in this film, who talks to her and gradually reveals his own problems. The two of them grow better together. Gradually she feels the rest and relaxation and escape from cares that she feels she needs.

Years before she had visited Bali and met with a man of great peace and calm on that small island. Bali is a part of Indonesia, but unlike the rest of Indonesia it's basic religion is Hindu. Eventually, she meets a man from a Latin American Country, Felipe played by Javier Barden, who is there with his daughter. He has an import/export business and operates out of Bali. He also owns a yacht and over time the two of them become better acquainted. She, however, has brainwashed herself to be careful of any entanglements and at first tries to avoid their reltaionship. Eventually, she overcomes her fears and they pair off as a couple.

Strangely enough this picture has received an extremely large number of negative votes from person's who regularly use the IMDB. I tried to decide why this is so and read a number of the letters. I couldn't find a set pattern but it seemed to me it had to be an organized protest of some sort. My initial assumption was that it was from 100% Christians that objected to the Hindu teachings. No other film except one that I have looked up on IMDB has ever shown such an overwhelming low ball attempt. I would like to know what causes it.

That's enough pictures about India. They cover a period of over 75 years of film making. There are many others, of course, "The Rains Came," with Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power and George Brent immediatly comes to mind and is certainly a memorable film from the early period of the 1930's.

Screwball Comedies

After viewing the recent Sandra Bullock film "The Proposal" I wondered how it should be characterized. It is definitely a comedy with a few serious aspects, but not very relevant to most of today's humorous films. My decision was a product of my recalling movies I particularly liked from my youthful days. These were films prominant in the last years of the Great Depression that dealt with a different take on humor. The films, and there were a number of them, usually dealt with wealthy people and some of the odd things they did. They were generally heavy in eccentrics, the kinds of people who though seemingly normal did a lot of not so normal things. And, they came to be referred to as SCREWBALL COMEDIES.


I have decided to select five films from that period that were typical of those times. In addition I have tried to devote these selections to five different directors, writers and actors prominent in that genre. To complement that five I have come up with five additional films of comparable designation as Screwball. These include one from earlier in the 1930's that is a real classic but not usually so recognized. And, finally, I have noted three films from more recent times that fit the category, and one foreign language film that has similar qualities. All will be presented in the order I describe above.


THE LADY EVE - 1941. This is generally recognized as the finest product from writer/director Preston Sturges who did several films in the Screwball Comedy genre. It stars Barbara Stanwyck in a dual role as Jean Harrington, daughter of the experienced huckster Charles Colburn as "Handsome" Harry Harrington. Later on in the film Miss Stanwyck plays the Lady Eve Sidwich, a suppsedly wealthy member of a titled English family. Miss Stanwyck does the English part of her performance with perfect elan. Her foil is the almost always excellent Henry Fonda playing the eccentric son of a New England Beer Baron, "Pike's Pale, the ale that won for Yale." Fonda plays young Pike sometimes called Popsy by Stanwyck as Jean Harrington.

The film also utilizes many of the performers popularly used by Preston through the years including William Demarest and Eric Blore among others. The story begins on an ocean liner where Jean meets Popsy, moves to Long Island where the senior Mr. Pike, Eugene Pallette lives and includes anothe Preston characteristic, a train ride, and finally ends on another ocean liner. I won't try to tell the whole story, but it turns out quite happily at the end when Mr. Pike Jr. and Miss Harringon head for one of there staterooms for a liaison. Mr. Pike apologizes and notes with sadness that he has married in the interim and Miss Harrington responds subtlely, that so has she. The difference being that Pike married Miss Sidwich never realizing that it was Miss Harrington.




BRINGING UP BABY - 1938. This memorable classic featured two of Hollywood's biggest stars, Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Hepburn had gained a reputation of being box office poison a negative connotation that was greatly alleviated by her funny performance in this film. Grant already known for his comic skills was cast as a professor in the field of pre-historic mammals, most notably the giant dinasours. He is working on a brontasaurus and lacks only one bone which is being sent to him by parcel post. He is also working on getting a large grant to help his museum work. All kinds of unpleasent things happen to him including a problem on the golf course, a damage to his car and other irritations all caused by Hepburn. The picture includes such items as a pet leopard mailed to her from overseas, a dog who burries Grant's brontosaurus bone and to many others to enumerate including time in jail and his abandonment by his fiance.


An example of his occurences is his soaking of his clothes in a stream while hunting for the dog who took the bone or the leopard or both in a Connecticut woods. On getting back to Susan's Aunt's house, "Susan is played by Katherine hepburn while Grant is known as David." Anyhow, on getting back to Susan's aunt's house he takes a shower and then goes to put on his clothes but Susan has taken them to the cleaners. Left with having to put on something he selects Susan's fluffy bathrobe when the doorbell rings. Susan has disappeared with his clothes so Grant has to answer it. The aunt, Dame May Whitty, is there and wants to know where his clothes are. "These aren't my clothes the exasperated David replies, "I've just suddenly gone gay." This is the first time I had ever heard the term Gay before, but in my innocence of youth assumed he meant happy. There are other outlandish funny events in this classic of the screwball realm.



HIS GIRL FRIDAY - 1940. Grant again in a remake of the "Front Page" a very successful play and earlier film which starred Pat O'Brien. Grant is a newspaper publisher. His former wife a star reporter, Hilde Johnson, is played by the witty Rosalind Russell. The story concerns the execution of a prisoner, apparently a Communist, very bad in those days, who is going to be hung for murder. Russell is engaged to marry ever square and faithful Ralph Bellamy. In one scene, Grant's henchman, Abner Biberman, was tasked to do some dirty work on Bellamy. "What does he look like" he queries Grant, the latter tells him, "He looks like Ralph Bellamy."

Most of the film takes place in the jail waiting for the execution. It mostly involves dialogue between the half a dozen newspapermen/reporters there to cover the event. They are a motley crew, one of which, Roscoe Karns, is known as Stairway Sam, since he parks himself in a chair next to the window that faces the stairs going up and down. Stairway Sam is active in his viewing whenever a lady goes up and he follows her progress carefully until she reaches the top of the stairs providing Sam with a complete underskirt view.

The prisoner escapes and Hilde Johnson who has agreed to cover the execution for Grant, one last time, and with Grant's help hides him in a rolltop desk. After everything is said and done, the sheriff and the mayor are charged with malfeiance in office and the prisoner goes free. An example of the humor includes Grant's request to Biberman, "have you got any counterfeit money on you." Bibberman replies, "always, boss," Do you have 400 hundred dollars." Grant is going to have it planted on Bellamy so he will be arrested. Bibberman, tells him, "Oh, no boss, I never carry that much at any one time."

I also might note the Marian Martin is in the film. She was a long time minor supporting actress with peroxide blond hair, the Jean Harlow look, and a a very pale cupey doll face. She is Biberman's girl friend in the film. Hildy Johnson, in disgust refers to her as, "that albino girl friend of yours." To which Bibberman replies, "I'll have you know she is just as much an American as you are."


THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES - 1941. The Devil and Miss Jones returns Charles Coburn to the Screwball Comedy world. He made this film in 1941 and followed it two years later with an equal screwball effort in "The More the Merrier." His actress partner in both films was the delightful Jean Arthur noted for her wonderful dry deep voice. In this film Coburn, the devil in this case, is the richest man in America and owner among other things of a New York Department store. There have been some labor problems and Coburn has hired a private detective to ferrit out who is the problem maker. This man fails, so Coburn secretly decides to take the task on himself. He gets hired into the store, but because he scores so poorly on the intelligence test he is assigned to the shoe department and then specifically to just slippers. His efforts are rather fruitless. He is hounded by his shoe department manager, but is befriended by Arthur, another employee, and her friend Spring Byington. Many funny things happen to Coburn in his job but gradually he lets up and in particular falls for Byington playing her usual nice self. To keep the roles straight, Arthur plays Mary Jones, Coburn is John P. Merrick and Byington Elizabeth Ellis.


At the end the employees achieve unionization and Coburn, his whole attitude changed, takes all the store's employees on a cruise. Events leading up to the ending are about as funny as things can be. There is a meeting between a select group of employees naturally including Arthur, Byington and Arthur's boyfriend, Joe O'Brien, played by Robert Cummings. Coburn is sitting next to them and to the stores corporate people as well. Both the employees and the corporate type's thing that Coburn is sitting with them. At this time Arthur and Byington don't realize Coburn is the stores owner. In one funny exchange Byington makes a comment that was shot down by one of the corporate types. Coburn is attracted to her and feels very protective. The corporate gentleman is roundly blasted by Coburn. When the employees find out that Coburn is actually the owner of the store they are flagergasted, Cummings enough so that he plain passes out.



ROXIE HART - 1941. This was a remake of another successful stage play which had been made into a movie Called "Chicago." Later the film was remade again as a broadway musical and film starring Catherine Zeta Jones who did most of the dance direction, and Renee Zellweger who played the Roxie Hart Role. When it was made in 1941 under the name of Roxie Hart it was shot as a Screwball Comedy, and is remembered as one of the best of the genre. Ginger Rogers played Roxie and she did it managing to include some great dancing including a solo on the metal jail stairs where she was being held for murder. Earlier a newspaper reporter played by Lynne Overman while she is being interviewed by reporters in the jail asks, "can you do the Black Bottom." She replies she has her own version. which prompts him to ask if people like what she does and she responds, "I haven't had any complaints yet." He then asks her for a demonstration which she does with a very loose version accompanied by background music typical of the times. It soon has all those in the room dancing including, Spring Byington playing a rather advice for the love lorn type reporter named Miss Sunshine and if you can believe it Sara Allgood, yes, lovable Sara, playing the jail matron.

Later Roxie and another prisoner get into a hair pulling fight. Sara tsk tsks and bangs their heads together saying "children, children."


Another very funny incident involves another woman who has been jailed because of a murder. This one is called "Two Gun Gertie" whose crime is holding up of a gas station and killing the owner. She is delightfully played by long time bit player Iris Adrian, who while be interviewed by the reporters turns to Overman and asks with a curved upper lip and snarl in her voice, "Got a match bub?"


The reporter who supports Roxie all the way is played by George Montgomery. While Roxie is on the stars before doing her tap routine she suddenly gets interested in Montgomery and asks him in a silky way while standing very close, "How old are you?'

Adolphe Menjou is also very funny playing Roxie's attorney Billy Flynn. There are as many funny incidents in this film as others of the Screwball Comedy contingent from that period. If you like clever writing and right on humor developed by experienced actors and actresses you will definitely enjoy any of the films above.





30 DAY PRINCESS - 1934


This was one of Cary Grant's earlier films produced before he had fully developed the Cary Grant image. Grant was one of the stars, though the principal one was Sylvia Sidney who like Barbara Stanwyck in "The Lady Eve," plays dual roles. The story is really a fun depiction of the King of an impoverished nation, Henry Stevenson who meets America's most important banker, Richard M. Gresham, played by Edward Arnold in adjoining Turkish mud bath tubs. A conversation develops where the king laments how poor his country is and the need for money. Arnold notes his bank can probably negotiate a loan but needs an image to present to the American public to get approval for the loan. Thus Sylvia Sidney arrives as the King's lovely daughter, Princess Catterina, who affectionately known as Zhi - Zhi.


The dual role comes about with the arrival of Zhi-Zhi in New York and her immediate
catching of the mumps. This results in a search by the detective agency hired by Arnold for a substitute pretending to be the princess. Fortunately, they find the girl in the New York Automat restaurant about to consume a full meal that she got by accident. She is an out of work actress, named Nancy Lane, who can't pay her rent and is stuck with reading her meager credits for entertainment. Sydney immediate reveals her acting talent and takes on and succeeds at the role she is hired to play.


Cary Grant who plays a hot shot newspaper editor named Porter Madison III thinks the whole thing is a phony and tries to discredit her editorially, etc. Unfortunately for him he also manages to fall in love with her..


Everything straightens out fine in the end when the real princess manages to recover enough to play herself at a critical moment in the film. It's a cute film and one totally enhanced by the extremely clever writing by Preston Sturges who as noted above was the writer and director as well for "The Lady Eve."



The other four films which we decided to include in this collection are three contemporary American efforts in the same genre and one French Foreign language film that has much the same characteristics of screwball comedy.




HUDSUCKER'S PROXY - 1994


This was a very funny film by the Coen Brothers who we discussed in a previous column. They used some of the same techniques popularized by Preston Sturges but with a lot less continual energy. They also cleverly thought up different names for the roles.



Charles Hudsucker, played by Charles Durning, was the chief executive of a manufacturing company that specialized in children's toys. Among the firms many, many employees was Norville Barnes, a recent hire right out of college who was from Munsey, Indiana. Norville is really a world class smoe with practically no experience or understanding of what makes the world go round. He works in the mail room, a horrendous huge cavernous space jam packed with employees who are busy as bees sorting and delivering mail. Norville deftly played by Tim Robbins has the smoe quality down pat. The working environment is very similar to that developed by Terry Gilliam for his fantasy "Brazil" where the similar if greatly exagerated environment is portrayed.


The story centers on the CEO, Huddsucker, at a board meeting who decides to take his life by jumping out the board room window. The board room is located on the 40th floor which is a guarantee that he will acomplish his objective. The firms number two man is Paul Newman in the delightfully named role of Sidney J. Mussburger. Mussberger has a scheme to have the company's fortunes take a precipitous nose dive. The objective is for all the board members to sell their stock and then buy it back again after it's precipitous fall. Mussburger puts his plan in place by placing a low level jerk in the CEO job. The jerk turns out to be Norville and the firm does indeed collapse because of an invention of Norville's, the Hula Hoop.


Well, the firm hinges on the brink of disaster until some kid figures out how to use the hula wheel and the film starts making money hand over fist.


Since this is a screwball comedy, this has a happy ending. but only after introducing Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays Amy Archer, ace reporter for a local newspaper. Leigh, has been recognized for her performance whinch has been described as an adept adaptation of the same kind of roles that both Katherine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell made famous back in the late 30's and early 40's, i.e. "Bringing Up Baby," and "His Girl Friday." There is far more detail and several other nice perfromances that help to make the film work. Not to forget, the delightful scene of Tim Robbins in a ballet sequence with a ballarina against an entirely floor to ceiling white background.




STATE AND MAIN - 2000


This film was somewhat of a departure for David Mamet from his usual fare of low level but complex crimes. Though it is a departure it features several of the same actors and actresses who are standard members of his films including wife, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Ricky Jay, William C. Macy along with a few newcomers who fully exploit the humorous aspects of this screwball comedy.


The film deals with a film company in a Vermont town trying to make a vintage film about conditions around the turn of the century. Macy is the films director and very effective in his frustrations with in particular his leads, Sara Jessica Parker and Alec Baldwin. The former had signed a contract that included exposing her breasts at a handsome addition to her usual fees. She has decided she just can't do it and tearfully tells Macy why. Baldwin's situation is entirely different in that he has taken an interest in young women, some of which are still in their lower teens. Having to overcome these problems is only part of his worries. His writer, Seymour Hoffman is doing the screen play from his own novel. Now he has to rewrite the script because of a major change. He is terribly hung up and can't get started. Somehow he meets the town's book store owner, Rebecca Pidgeon, who has just the genius to help him and guide him through the rewrite.


With all these problems you can well imagine there will be many unusual situations, which the film fully explores. Ultimtely, it all works, despite Baldwin's escapade with a teen ager who works a local diner, Julia Stiles. The problem with Sarah Jessica Parker is solved a different way by having her play a nun thus eliminating any reason to expose her breasts.


It's a remarkably funny film in full accord with the traditions of screwball comedy.




THE PROPOSAL - 2009


This is the film that started this whole subject. Is it a screwball comedy? Well consider these facts. Sandra Bullock plays an egotistical head of a department in a major book publishing firm.
She's a Canadian citizen who never followed through with her requirements to interface with the Immigration Department. This has led her to the unfortunate situation of having to be deported for non-compliance except if she has a legitimate reason to avoid deportation, i.e. a marriage. She solves this problem by forcing a member of her staff into telling a lie that they are planning to get married. Ryan Reynolds is this unfortunate sacrificial victim.


Like with all screwball comedies, the situations are far more complex than those in real life. For example he puts the screws to her and makes her agree to making him a senior editor on her staff and to publish the novel he has written which she has been sitting on. And finally, he makes her get down on her knees and propose to him on a downtown street in New York.


In addition they have to prove their love by spending time together for a short period before having their phony marriage thus establishing her American credentials. These include flying to Sitka, Alaska for his grandmother's 88th birthday. This results in a very clever and funny portrayal by Betty White. Another indignity is the flight actually into Sitka involves being a passenger in a two engine prop plane convertible as needed for either water or land landing. This is extremely distracting to Bullock who always flies first class. In addition they have to get to the family's home by a water taxi which also disturbs her since she can't swim.


There are so many funny incidents that it is virtually impossible to name them all. For one they have to share a bedroom at his parent's house since the family understands that they are adult people and are expected to sleep together. Reynolds solves this by sleeping on the floor.

While sharing this room Bullock on one occasion needs a shower after a trip to Sitka with her upcoming mother-in-law, Mary Steenbergin, who is her usual reliable self, and Reynold's grandmother Betty White. While there they go to a pole dance routine performed by a local scantily clad gentleman. This thoroughly unnerves Bullock. Anyhow, she fails to get a towel before entering the shower and comes out sopping wet, hands protecting vital locations and is just reaching for a towel when Reynolds comes in stark nakid having thought she was in town with his mother and grandmother. The two crash together and land on the floor one on top of the other. This description just doesn't do justice to the whole sequence which is uproaringly funny.


Later Bullock is telling him many things about herself, her parent's died when she was 16, she has been on her own ever since, she has a tattoo, etc. and she also mentions that she hasn't slept with anyone for a year and a half. After she finishes her dialogue he asks her how long has it been since she slept anyone. And she in anger notes I should have realized that's the only thing you would remember

Like, which is largely characteristic of all screwball comedies, there is a happy ending, one where Bullock and Reynolds are definitely set to get married.

Oddly enough, I caught the last part of a film on TCM last night that I had never heard of. It was called "Come Live With Me." It dealt with the situation of an Austrian show girl who had been living and working in the U.S. but was going to be deported back to her home country. Her only out was to make a deal with a single man to marry her with special conditions. The conditions would be that she would see him once a week to deliver his weekly check, amounting to $17.80 to pay for his living expenses. When it came time for a divorce he would grant it and that would be the end of the situation. Sound somewhat familiar? There is also a grandmother who is a real sage. The film was made in 1941 and starred Jimmy Stewart and Hedy Lamarr at that time known as the most beautiful woman in Hollywood a judgment still held by many today. There is a very clever ending where Stewart explains the love affair between fireflies where the female of that species turns her firefly light off and on to indicate she is ready for lovemaking.

BON VOYAGE - 2003

This French film is a combination of mystery and comedy, which is true with many other screwball comedies, think in particular of the Thin Man films with William Powell and Myrna Loy. The setting is the period from just before the German attack on Poland in 1939 and the collapse of the French after the German breakthrough the following year. It deals with Isabelle Adjani playing a French film actress who is attacked in her home by a disgruntled former suiter.

During the attack he apparently falls to his death from a her bedroom balcony which overlooks her living room. She calls a childhood friend, Gregori Derangere, a young man who is writing a novel, and persuades him to come and help dispose of the body. They do this by stuffing it in the cars trunk. He takes off and in a driving rain storm. His poorly operating windshield wipers interfere with his vision resulting in his car running into a post. At the impact the trunk pops open revealing the corpse. The police come and charge him with murder even though he claims he was just trying to steal the car. Much to his chagrin they tell him the man had been shot which was far different from what Adjani had described to him, a all from her balcony bedroom.


He is thrown in the slammer. While there he works on a novel using a small portable typewriter. One night the guards come and gather up the prisoner's and proceed to haul them away because the Germans's are coming. He is handcuffed to a common criminal, but the latter dashes away dragging Derangere along with him.

From there the plot gets increasingly confusing. The writer has managed to get on board a train heading south. On it he meets the prisoner who he had been handcuffed to and also a lovely young woman, Virgenie Ledoyen, who is attending the university in Paris. Somehow the three of them all acting separately get to Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast in the south of France. This includes a ride in a car, a nice woody station wagon, owned by a professor and his driver. The professor is a scientist and has several bottles of heavy water on board that he is trying to save from the Germans.


If you're not confused yet here's what happens next. The actress was greatly admired by a member of the French government, Gerard Depardieu, who has made her his mistress and brought her to Bordeaux with him where the governmetn ministers are meeting and trying to decide what to do.

Also in Bordeaux are thousands of refugees trying to escape the advancing Germans and leave France. Gerard Depardieu, who we met earlier, and who is a member of the govenment cabinet, had taken a fancy to Adjani and she is now traveling with him as his mistress. All kinds of shenanigans take place and end up with the Professor and the girl and our hero trying to escape to the coast where they hope to get a ride in a ship. Eventually they get there despite all kinds of other problems and the professor and Demangere safely get aboard a british warship with the containers of heavy water.


Only the girl, Virginie Ledoyen stays on. Our hero had left his typed manuscript in the car and she is rushing to get it to him when the wind catches it and blows the loose pages out of her hand. The manuscript has already been read by an experienced writer and has been commended as being excellent. After our hero has been hauled away in a rowboat by British sailers she sits on the steps of a small structure reading the pages she has retrieved.

There is a short afterpart a year or two later. In it the girl and the writer meet in a Paris cafe. She is a member of the underground and he has been parachuted into France as a British spy. They talk and she learns the manuscript has been published and has been extremely well received. As they sit talking and drinking she notices some men coming and knows they need to hide. They get away and hide in a movie theatre where a film is playing starring Adjani. I had failed to mention that always an oportunist, she has gone off with an official of the German Reich who had been hiding in france as a German spy.


Of all the films listed here this is the most difficult to write about. Roger Ebert did an excellent review of it back when it was released. To view a more vivid more complete review you should look up his column.


That's a rather varied set of films exploring the Screwball comedy genre. There are many other riches, some just as good or in some cases even better.

MILIZA KORJUS FILM CLIP 1938

This is the first big musical number in the fantasy life of Johann Strauss called "The Great Waltz." This is the orchestra Strauss has put together on it's first concert, actually a dance concert. Strauss took the job at no charge. Militza Korjus playing the Vienna State Opera's lead coloratura is seen in this exerpt, but does not sing. The singer is the lead tenor of the Vienna State Opera who does an exciting rendation on Strauss's "Artist Life" waltz. This role was played by an American actor who was later known principally for his roles in "B" level westerns. Later on I'll try to include other segments of the film which largely feature Miss Korjus.

David Mamet

David Mamet's principal fame rests on nearly 40 years of successful theatre stage productions. Mamet's style is shaped around short sentences and immediate responses. Much of it is devoted to slang and profanity with an emphasis on terms typical of criminal activity. Crime is a basic ingredent in almost all of his work, though in some instances the crime is secondary to the basic story. In the crime world Mamet is particularly adept at dealing with the con game and the self delusion that makes con's work.

I have slelected five films which I view as personal favorates. This group does not include what is generally considered to be Mamet's finest film, "Glengary Glen Ross," which initially was a successful theatre production. My personal trouble with that film was the excessive use of obscene language. I don't have much of a problem with profanity, but continous use of obscenity is a real turnoff for me. Overall the film is a downer and tends to remind me of my short army career where at one time a fellow GI called my atention to a third member of our company by noting that the G.I.in question used an obscenity as every third or fourth word in a sentence.

Another Mamet classic, and one he received an Acadmy Award for relative to his script writing was "The Verdict." This film was a starrer for Paul Newman and received a lot of acclaim from qualified critics. Certainly it and the previously noted Glengary Glen Ross are worth viewing.

My list includes five other Mamet films which may be directed by him and/or used Scripts he wrote. I will list and discuss them in the order in which I like them, with my first choice topping the list. Generally these films feature actors and actresses that I particularly like. Without further discussion the list follows including the year of release:

1. State and Main (2000)
2. The Winslow Boy (1999)
3. The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
4. Things Change (1988)
5. The House of Games (1987)

One thing you will quickly note is that Mamet has particular favorite performers much like Woody Allen, Preston Sturges, John Ford and other writers and directors. In Mamet's case they most notably include Joe Mantegna who is one of my personal favorites and who appears in two of the films listed above plus several others not on my list. Others include Ricky Jay in three of my selections, W.C. Macy in two and Mamet's wife Rebecca Pidgeon in three. In addition it will become obvious to you that others have roles in more than one of the pictures on my list.


STATE AND MAIN - This is a comedy, and a really effective one with a touch of crime as well. It's set in Vermont where a Hollywood film company is shooting a film called "The Old Mill." W.C. Macy is directing this film, Seymour Philip Hoffman is the script writer who is adapting his own novel, Alec Baldwin plays the film within a film's lead actor working with Sarah Jessica Parker as the lead actress.

Macy has several problems before starting production including controlling Alec Baldwin who has developed a fixation on young females starting as young as age 13. One of Macy's jobs is to keep Baldwin under lock and key. Julia Styles plays the teenager in State and Main who comes under Baldwin's observation.

Macy faces a different problem with Parker whose contract calls for her to bare her breasts. Suddenly she just can't do it. Apparently, according to Macy''s assitant, "She recently got religion."

Philip Seymour Hoffman also has a different problem in that he has to rewrite his script. Originally, the crew was going to shoot "The Old Mill" in New Hampshire, but the town father's of the city the company selected wanted too much money. The film crew has moved to the Vermont town because the city they selected in that state has a far more co-operative city government. Unfortunately, however, that town's old mill burnt down a couple of years ago. Hoffman has to rewrite the scipt reflecting this no longer available venue, no old mill. He just can't do it. His good luck however, is that Rebecca Pidgeon , the owner of the local Book Store assures him that it can be done and ultimaely guides him through the solution to his problem.

In the end everything works out though Baldwin does get involved with Styles; Parker is given a new role to play where she doesn't have to expose her breasts and the new script proves to be a great success. There are many great lines and scenes. We learn more about Parker when she comes out of her room at the hotel wearing just a bath towel complaining to Baldwin who had preceded her out, "The reason I can't come is because everyone treats me like a child."


THE WINSLOW BOY - Mamet moved in a different direction in this film which is a period piece set in England in 1910 and based on a real incident. It features Nigel Hawthorne as the father of a boy in an English boys military type school for prospective naval officers. The boy is a 14 year old and interestingly is played by Rebecca Pidgeon's younger brother, Mathew. Rebecca Pidgeon plays Hawthorne's older daughter and Gemma Jones his wife.

The film involves a crime, the theft of an English Postal Note in the value of 5 schillings. Evidence seems to prove that the boy had indeed stolen the note and cashed it resulting in his being expelled from the school. Hawthorne is sure his son did not commit the crime and decides to fight the allegation and expulsion by attempting to sue the English Admiralty for falsely accusing his son.

In order to fight his case Hawthorne contacts and attempts to hire a barrister who also is a member of Parliament to pursue his lawsuit. This role is played very effectivly by Jeremy Northam. The boy is brought before Northam who questions him vigorously much to the alarm of the family members who are there. They are convinced that Northam doesn't believe the boy. Finally, he turns to them and says with a hard to describe expression, "The boy is obviously telling the truth." Later he explains how he reached that conclusion.

Rebecca Pidgeon and Northam develop a relationship during the film. She is a suffragate and very strong willed over her convictions. At the films conclusion Northam tells her he will see her in Parliament again. She notes with her superior air that he doesn't know anything about women, and if he does see her in Parliament she will be a sitting MP. He notes in return, "She doesn't know men very well, and she will be seeing him again." My paraphraising is not 100% on the mark but the implication of their exchange is quite clear.

THE SPANISH PRISONER - I never developed a concise understanding of the phrase "Spanish Prisoner," even though it is explained in the film, but it's implication is clear in that the person in this sitation is trapped in a spider web of deceit that he can't escape from.

The film stars Campbell Scott, George C. Scott's very capable son. Campbell Scott is a mechanical genius type who has developed a concept called THE PROCESS that is sure to make his company a really large sum of money and consequently will benefit Scott handsomly as well. He has the formula carefully locked up in his office safe, in order to protect it from being stolen. His boss Ben Gazzara is the company president and warns him to be very careful since others would be most interested in acquiring the Process, most notably the Japanese.

The film also includes Rebecca Pidgeon as a secretary within Gazzara's company, Ricky Jay who helped Scott in developing the Process and Steve Martin who plays a mysterious and very wealthy New Yorker who befriends Scott.

What we are about to see unfold is an outstanding example of the Big Con. Slowly but surely Scott is taken in and eventually loses the Process. Pidgeon continues to try to help him and eventually drives him from New York to Boston to fly out of the U.S. and flee the coountry since by now Scott is a prime murder suspect. The film draws to a close with the revelation to Scott of what has been going and his rescue at he very end. I won't dwell on the details of the spider's web aspects, but it is very clever and real. One thing to note, the Japanese menace is always in the forefront of the picture. After the third or fourth watching I finally noted that there were a couple of Japanese people, a man and a woman, who appear in several scenes as the film proceeds. This is an obvious reference to the Japanese threat.

This is a tidy film and makes you think back to times in the past when you were fooled perhaps by people you took for granted or perhaps and just as likely when you ended up fooling yourself.

THINGS CHANGE - This is another of Mamet's convoluted stories. In this film Mamet used Don Ameche, a big time name from musical films of the thirties and forties, in an entirely different environment. Ameche is a shoe shine specialist who operates a shoe shine stand in a big city down town environment. Some one from the mob notes that Ameche bares a strong resemblence to an important mafia leader. A plan is developed to have Ameche take the fall when the big time hood commits a murder. Ameche is elderly and is looking forward to retiring in Italy where he will own a small boat and live contentedly in retirement. What the gangsters are going to do is have Ameche get charged with the crime, and then get him off in two or three years and pay him enough money to fullil his dream. Eventually he agrees to the improbable plan.

Joe Mantagna, a low level member of the crime organization , is assigned the task of keeping Ameche under observation and out of site until after the murder. Mantagna takes him to Reno where the two of them stay in a fabulous suite provided by the mob group. Mantagna gets bored, and wants action so he takes Ameche to one of the gambling casino's where the first of many interesting events takes place.

The substance of the story is that Ameche plays everything straight just as you might imagine an unpretentious very self controlled older man might do. However, his closed mouth and relaxed persona has the effect of intimidating other mob operators who are not in on what is going on and who through time mentally elevate Ameche to a very high level in the mobs herirachy.

The whole concept plays out beautifully. Montagna plays his gangster image to perfection, but it's Ameche whose nonchalant very conservative personal image drives the film. His is a very nice overall performance.

HOUSE OF GAMES - This is another of Mamet's investigations into the world of con and in this case it is the real Big Con, one structured without a touch of humor and very diferent from the Paul Newman-Robert Redford film of a few years back, "The Sting." The difference is we are on the outside looking on without any real knowledge of the Con. The ultimate real Big Con is not revealed until near the end of the picture. It's pretty revealing in it's dealings with more perverse human behavior.

Lindsay Crouse, who at that time she Mamet's wife, plays the female lead in the film. She is a psychiatrist who has written a very successful book on compulsive behavior. One of her patients comes for an appointment and lets her know he's going to be killed because he couldn't control his gambling obsessions and now owes several thousand dollars to a local gambler. Crouse agrees to try and help him partly from curiosity and partly from genuine interest in helping her patient. She visits the site where the gambling took place. It is a very sleazy dive in some ugly part of New York. There she meets Mantagna, who is a real low life and who is the guy her patient owes the money too. While there she watches an on-going poker game and eventally, in order to help Mantagna, bankroles him. She accidentally discovers and exposes a con supposedly of Mantagna by Mamet regular Ricky Jay.

As time goes by Crouse gets more and more involved and interested in this kind of criminal activity. Mantagna lets her observe more fleecing attempts and gradually she becomes so fascinated in him that a personal relationship evolves. Eventually all this activity ends up in the biggest con of all which finds her extending Mantagna more financial support. Her observations eventually lead her to revealing conclusions which are resolved at the very end of the film.

One further comment. Early on in the film Crouse is advised by her mentor another psychologist Phd to get herself a lighter rather than always looking and asking for matches to support hr smoking habit. This advice comes back to us at the very end of the film.

The con game and related false playing are heavy elements in several other Mamet films, most notably in "Ronin" and "Heist" which starred Robert DeNiro. Also "Homicide" where Joe Mantagna, W.C. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon are involved in a drama of self delusion. One thing that is consistent with Mamet films is that they are deeply engrossing and require close atention to eventually understand what is going on. Usually one viewing will not be enough to saisfy this need for undersanding.

Pearl Harbor

War has certainly been one of the most favored genre's of movie watchers. This is particularly true of that conflict known as World War II. It was a war that covered almost every geographical location ranging from South America, the destruction of the German Pocket Battleship "Graf Spee" off the coast comes to mind through the prolonged warfare in the two principal theatre's, Europe and Eastern Asia.

During the war a number of films were produced devoted to areas that were involved in war time activities. Most of these are pretty much forgettable today, having been victims of excess propaganda. Some of them seem downright silly today. There was the Errol Flynn film set in Burma where after each day of fighting Flynn appears clean shaven and sparkling clean. There are plenty of other examples. There were, however, a few memorable pictures. Most notably those made by the Brits. I'm recalling such films as "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing," "Brief Encounter," and "In Which We Serve," (some consider the latter the best of all). John Ford in the US made one similarly great war film "The Long Voyage Home" which featured some of his standard players including, John Wayne. It was another power film with a poetic feel to it.

After the war was over there were many well made films. To mention only a few, perhaps the biggest of all "The Longest Day" appealed to practically all film goer's. The Germans made one of the greatest films based on submarine warfare "Das Boot" which was power and claustrophobia combined.

In recent years two other films really stand out. The first of these "Saving Private Ryan" was memorable in both what it covered, a small story in the overall vastness of the Normandy invasion, and as an example of how much detail can be of intense interest. A second film of nearly equal quality in recent works is the film we are discussing here, "Pearl Harbor." Not nearly as popularly received as "Saving Private Ryan," yet in it's story of the personal relationship between two air force flyers from Tennessee, the woman both loved and their participation in the famous Dec. 7, 1941 attack preceded with some coverage of the Battle of Britain and followed by the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. Another feature of the film is the extensive coverage of nurses and their participation in the war, an area of service which is most often overlooked in covering war.

This whole thread of historical events portrayed in Pearl Harbor rests in the relationships between Rafe McCawley played as an adult by Ben Afleck and of Danny Walker played by Josh Hartnet. The two had been boyhood friends and interested in flying primarily because Walker's father operated a crop dusting plane. The third principal of the trio was Evelyn Johnson played by Kate Beckansale who plays an army nurse. That meet Beckansale or McCawley does after he becomes attracted to her while undergoing service vaccinations and shots. In his efforts to make time he ends up being vaccinated more than once and ends up passing out in the medical center. Johnson's description of the events to other nurses is very humorous particularly as she tells them, "so, I stuck him in the butt again."

The flyers had undergone their extended flight training at an air force facility on Long Island. This shot was obviously done in Southern California actually at the Van Nuys air field in San Fernando Valley. The San Gabriel mountains show up in the background.

McCawley and Johnson get very attached to each other, however that doesn't stop McCawley for volunteering to join the British air force during the Air Battle of Britain. There are several shots of air combat in this theatre ending with McCawley being shot down over the English channel. We see him crash into the water and apparently drown. Prior to his leaving for Britain McCawley requests that Walker watch out for Johnson and protect McCawley's interest.

Walker is stationed in Hawaii and so is Johnson. Walker learns of McCawley's death and has the problem of telling Johnson. Afterwards they gradually become better acquainted and both fall in love. There are some lovely moments in this relationship including a couple of liaison's. One is in Walker's Buick convertible and a second more romantic one in an aircraft hanger where parachute's are being folded. There are also beautiful shots taken by the ocean with waves crashing over the rocks.

This idyllic episode is about to be interrupted by the Pearl Harbor attack, but before this Walker learns that McCawley is alive. The latter returns to the US from Britain and is sent to Hawaii. He is very angry at both the nurse and his long time aviation buddy and cannot accept the fact that the pair fell in love after learning he was dead. This ends up in a fight at a Honolulu night club between the two men who eventually spend the early morning hours together sobering up in Walker's convertible.

The Pearl Harbor attack occurs that same morning. The whole attack scenario is spectacular and realistic. There are marvelous shots of ships blowing up, of men being killed and incessant gunfire. The Japanese attack was well planned and cleverly arranged to occur early on a Sunday morning. Many men were off duty and the fleet and the whole complex of Pearl Harbor and other parts of Oahu were completely unaware of what was happening. Both McCawley and Walker managed to get to their planes and in particular with McCawley providing combat experience perform as well as can be expected against the overwhelming force of Japanese planes. Each has more than one kill flying the sturdy P-40's who were not nearly as maneuverable as their Japanese counterparts.

Also, most memorable are the moments spent with the nurses groups whose valiant response in this trying period or chaos and death is matched by their immediate response to need. It is a wild and confusing scene. One nurse is heard shouting what shall I do. Johnson in one scene has her finger in a wounded mans jugular vein keeping him from bleeding to death before surgery can start. Overall the scene with the nurses is probably the highlight of the film.

The recording of the chaos continues into the next day with death everywhere. Fires, explosions, etc. continue to haunt the screen. McCawley and Walker evetually receive orders to report to another location back in the states. This is going to be the Tokyo bombing attack. It includes a cabinet meeting with President Roosevelt played by John Voight. Voight's performance in the several scenes where he portrays the President are remarkable and include his standing without help in response to being told that it's not possible at this time to bring the war to the Japanese home islands. He says, after he struggles to his feet, "don't tell me something is impossible."

The Doolittle raid is led by James Doolittle who is played by Alex Baldwin. The preparations for the apparently impossible task are very detailed. Finally when the 16 B-26 bombers are at sea on the American Aircraft Carrier Hornet and are forced to take off early. The excitement of the pilots including Doolittle, McCawley and Walker is very engrossing. You can't help joining in that feeling of excitement.

The raid is a success and a real shock to the Japanese military and government authorities. Most of the planes managed to reach the Chinese mainland. There, after crashing, both McCawley and Walker are together for a short time before the flyers are attacked by Japanese troops. At this moment when walker lays dying McCawley tells him that he must live because he is to become a father. Before they had flown out Johnson had told him that she was pregnant, but had been afraid to tell Walker.

McCawley accompanies Walker's casket back. It is then that Johnson learns the truth. The films coda finds McCawley and Johnson together on Walker's fathers farm. There McCawley takes the old crop duster up with Walker and Johnson's young son riding with him.

I think that those who were alive at the time of Dec. 7th will probably react to this film much more than others. The relationship between the three young people is typical of what happened in those days before the development of the pill took the worry out of becoming pregnant. Des Kennelly the original editor of Mensa Classic Films, and who survived the blitz in England, once noted that the excitement of the times, and the proximity of death had an effect on personal relationships in Britain, and she suppose here as well. People did things, that their upbringing had told them not to do. The excitement of bombs falling and fires and gunfire were often stimulating to emotional relationships.

A couple of notes for Southern Californians. The Los Angeles Union Station posed as a New York station in one scene. Most interesting to me was the scene of Japanese planners for the attack working in what seemed to be a concrete dugout. Actually, this is a former concrete gun mount for the 14" cannon that were located in Fort MacArthur in Los Angeles to protect against a Japanese invasion by sea. These mounts are opened to visitors. Touring is fun and includes a museum and walking down dank clammy tunnels between gun sites.

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The Coen Brothers

"Burn After Reading," the most recent in a long string of successful films, is fully in the tradition of the Coen Brothers ability to mate comedy and crime into one package. Before going into details on this film it might be worth it to review some of their top films of the past. I'll make this a five film listing ending with "Burn After Reading." These are not necessarily in the same order as that contained in the Internet Movie Data Base ratings of their work since my taste runs toward their more humorous films rather than the primarily dramatic productions. Three of my choices are ranked among the top five by the contributors to IMDB ratings, and my number one choice is the same as theirs. Here is my list plus short commentaries on the individual films.

1. Fargo - This criminal film is filled with some truly outstanding humorous moments. My two favorites in the latter category include Fargo's detective Marge Gunderson played my Joel Coen's wife Francis McDormand querying a couple of prostitutes about their customers who are her suspects. She asks if they had any identifiable physical characteristics where in one of the prostitutes notes that the one she slept with was funny looking and was not circumcised. Marge notes the comment and asks "Was he funny looking apart from that." A second memorable bit of humor is late in the film where a police officer is interviewing a man busy working outside his house. It's icy and snow covered and about as dismal a day as you can imagine. When the officer goes to leave the gentleman comments, after looking up at the leaden sky, "It looks like it's going to turn to cold."

Francis McDormand won an award as best actress, and film was voted best film of the year by the Academy. Her use of a regional accent with emphasis on the large presence of Scandinavians in this area was a feature of her performance. She managed to keep her calm demeanor when discussing events of the murder crimes which including the feeding of a body into a wood chipper. That's pretty world class and ranks almost as high as being in a chain gang for shear horrer.

2. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. This was a very funny film about three escapees from a good old southern chain gang. I have never had a lot of affection for chain gangs one of the creative forms of handling prisoners by penal authorities in the deep south. Paul Muni made a most memorable performance as an escapee from a chain gang in the Academy Award Nominated film "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang." Muni was also nominated for the film as best actor. This was not a humorous film in the least and closed very dramatically with Muni fading into the shadows and responding to the query of how he lives by responding, "I steal." It was a memorable ending.

Paul Newman also played a chain gang victim in "Cool Hand Luke." Though this film had some humorous moments it dealt primarily with the cruelty faced when trapped in a Chain Gang. And Joel McCrae illustrated a similar experience with his performance as 'Sully' Sullivan in the Preston Sturges film "Sullivan's Travels." Sullivan was scheduled to direct "Ants in your Pants, 1940," but he wanted to work on a more significant story. His travails in "Sullivan's Travels" led to his being incarcerated in a chain gang. This brings us to "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou" which was the film that film director Sully Sullivan (McCrae) wanted to make rather than another comedy. In this film the chain gang is treated humorously. Though there is no despicable cruelty of the type shown in than the Muni and Newman films, it did as in "Sullivan's Travels" illustrate the indignity that can occur in life.

"Oh, Brother" opens with three convicts escaping from a Chain Gang. These are listed in the films advertising as DUMB (George Clooney), DUMBER (John Turturro) and DUMBEST (Tim Blake Nelson). Then follows a whole pile of funny episodes with Clooney playing the lead. His crime was practicing law without a license. The Coen Brothers used Homer's Ulysses as a structure to shoot against. Most notably are the three Sirens the convicts discover next to a river who serenade them with lovely singing and ardent affection. There is some great country boy singing, mostly by the three principles, an episode with Baby Face Nelson, and other episodes as wild as you can imagine. Overall this film is really world class.

3. The Big Lebowski. The Coen Brothers styled this picture after the work of Raymond Chandler. They had worked in a similar framework in "Miller's Crossing," the dark film starring Albert Finney and Gabriel Byrne with an attempt to do a crime in the mode typical of Dashiel Hammett. The resemblance of "The Big Lebowski" to Raymond Chandler is most notable in the film "The Big Sleep," a starring vehicle for Humphrey Bogart as the Chandler private eye, Phillip Marlowe. Like with "The Big Sleep" the "Big Lebowski," if anything is confusing. "The Big Sleep" was so confusing to Hawks and Humphrey Bogart who played Marlowe that Hawks queried Chandler as to who killed the chauffeur and received the ambiguous reply of, "I don't know."

In the "Big Lebowski" there is a collection of confusion. First there are two Lebowski's, the actual Big Lebowski, Jeffrey Lebowski, played by David Huddleston who is a handicapped older man stuck to using a wheel chair. In addition there is another Jeffrey Lebowski who is played by Jeff Bridges and who prefers to go by the name of "The Dude." The real Big Lebowski has a young wife who has rung up tremendous debts. Some collectors agents mix up the two Lebowski and go after the Dude. They do this by coming into his house, sticking him head first into a toilet thereby nearly drowning him. In addition one member of the party urinates on The Dudes Persian Rug. which really infuriates him. To attempt to explain the picture beyond that is rather difficult to say the least. The cast includes The Dude's two bowling buddies, played by John Goodman and Steve Buscime and The Big Lebowski's daughter played by Julianne Moore whose hobby is to paint in the drip style while being propelled stark naked below the ceiling of the Lebowski mansion, dripping paint from her brush and while being propelled. John Turturro is also instantly memorable as a foul mouthed bowler who calls himself "The Jesus."

It's my contention that you cannot figure out the film with a single viewing, so good luck.

4. The Hudsucker Proxy is another delightful film in the Coen Brothers zany environment. It stars Tim Robbins as a young college grad, a world class smoe from Muncie, Indiana, who gets a job at Hudsucker Industries in the mail room. Paul Newman is the Executive Vice President of this firm, whose president, Charles Durning, will soon be leaving the company and life in general with a sleep from the 40th floor tower at the corporate headquarters. These persons are called Norville Barnes, Sydney J. Mussburger, and Waring Hudsucker respectively. Also, very important to the cast and the film is Amy Archer, a delightful performance by Jennifer Jason Liegh. Miss Liegh has been described as playing a combination of Katherine Hepburn, think of her pretending to be a gun moll in a portion of "Bringing Up Baby," and Rosalind Russell most formidably as top reporter Hilde Johnson in "His Girl Friday." It's the brassiness these two mentors expressed in their respective roles, but in Hudsucker's Ms. Leigh must also play a tough broad, and a sensitive woman at the same time. It's a nice performance. The story is not too complex to follow but fun. The settings are terrific, with the real chaos and confusion of the huge mailroom being very similar to the chaos and confusion of the section where Jonathan Price works in the memorable futuristic fable "Brazil."

I won't go to far into the story which includes an attempt by Newman to bankrupt the company after selling off his and the board of Director's shares and then buying them back at the greatly reduced price. His plan was to have Robbins run the company into bankruptcy. However, Robbins or rather Norville has an invention, very simple, but a natural, the hula hoop. Of course what happens is that the stock goes way up, and the board has to come up with another scheme to accomplish their objective. A happy ending is on the way, and Norville is vindicated of false charges and eventually is working on his next invention, the Frisbee.

There are two really memorable though not important scenes that have no effect on the plot. In the first of these Peter Gallagher appears, with a strong resemblance to Dean Martin and lip cync to one of Martin's hits recordings at a big society party. It is terrific. Second is a fantasy dance sequence featuring Norville and a dancer wearing a very skimpy outfit. They dance to a segment of Bizet's Carmen against an all white background including a white floor. Though the lady dancer, possibly Amy Archer is spectacular in her dance moves, Norville is a complete idiot, dancing in imitation of a bull. It's another fantastic moment and definite highlights to a very amusing film.

5. Burn After Reading. The most recent of the Coen Brothers very funny films also includes a few deaths to liven things up. It's cast includes some of the Coen Brothers regulars, i.e. George Clooney and Francis McDormand, playing Harry Pfarer and Linda Lizle respectively, but it also features a very funny take by Brad Pitt as Chad Feldheimer and a very uptight performance by Tilda Swinton as Katie Cox playing in her usual tight lipped style. The story takes place in Washington D.C. and begins with John Malkovich, Katie's husband Osbourne Cox being relieved of his position with the CIA as a specialist on the Balkans. He is very angry about this dismissal and decides to write his memoirs describing his work with the Agency and of course he is planning to be very careful not to reveal any important secrets. Katie is having an affair with Clooney who also works for the government. In this role Clooney plays a world class womanizer and is very funny.

But the stars of the humor section are Pitt and McDormand. They work for a commercial workout venture, exercise equipment, gym. Earlier we are treated to the observations of a doctor who is examining an unseen McDormand and providing answers to her plea of needing a new body. He notes that surgery can solve an overlarge butt, too fat arms, etc. and a reinforcement medical procedure of breast implants can solve the bust problem, for the thighs, though he recommends an exercise program. McDormand as Linda Litze is to far advanced into her 40's to be satisfied with half measures if she hopes to acquire a real strongly commited male companion. She has taken to using the internet for dates. We are introduced to one of her partners in this venture and note virtually no life in the man. She is really frustrated and determined to earn enough money for the surgery after her insurance company has turned down She makes another inernet contact and arranges to meet the latter at her favorite spot, a park bench in a D.C. park next to the Potomac. There she meets Clooney, who has decided on a rest, and who responds when she says the name of her internet source. She asks his name, "are you Absalom (or whatever) and he says, "what" initially and then "yes" when his womanizing instincts come into play. He had just finished another liaison with Malkovich's wife, Tilda Swindon, but is already for more action.

All this has little to do with the overall story, but it does come together when Pitt and McDormand find the CD containing Malkovich's memoirs on the floor at their place of employment. A quick review and the two are convinced that it is real intelligence and decide, or at least she does, that selling it to the Russians will provide the most money.

Well that's enough of the plot which is far more involved than this. Some people are killed, one flees the country, and you'll have to see it and try to keep all the roles straight. It's classic Coen Brothers with humor, confusion and some crime thrown in to provide a well rounded flick entertainment.

The Children of Paradise, Redux

I originally reviewed this film some 27 years ago in the Mensa Classic Films issue number 9, July 1982. I intend to re-visit that review but also to provide some additional commentary as related to my recent viewing on the tube. As originally released the film covered just 120 minutes. This is the version I originally saw as a college student in Los Angeles in the late 40's. At the time the time the film was shot it extended over three hours. This caused complications since it was filmed during the Nazi occupation of France during the early 1940's. The German occupiers had a limit of 90 minutes for each individual film. I don't know the purpose of this limitation, but like many things I'm not sure the Nazis knew as well, however, being oriented towards discipline, they enforced this ruling.

The film when finally released to it's original specifications covered 186 minutes. The version I received from the LA County Library was of that length. To many years have passed by since my original viewing for me to note what was missing from my first viewing. I do know of just one tiny cut which I'll cover later.

Through all these years it has remained my all time favorite foreign language film. Les Enfants du Paradis or The Children of Paradise is recognized as the all time most important work by producer Marcel Carne. It is a story in the grand style. Stories within stories, drama within drama and ultimately an examination of a broad range of humanity from the aristocracy to the very dregs of society. It is not just a history in the grand style it is many different things at once, actually fictionalized history in an epic style. It is a filmic discussion of the inner complexities of men and women, a history or fictionalized history, but most of all it is a story of love, both
physical and emotional in all it's complexities.

Today I see that reference to love as perhaps not in keeping with today's focus on sex and love. Love is an emotional experience devoted to a feeling that it is next to impossible to live without the person you believe you love. Sex on the other hand, is a physical process that may involve love though love is not necessary in the desire for or expressing or satisfying sexual desire. As we well know today, marriage and the joining of two people is not really a product of love but rather a contract between two people that calls for observing certain rules of behavior. These are most pertinent in the laws relative to property rights, inheritance and the various products making up a persons wealth. It is nice when romance and true love are a part of the union of two people but in most cases in most societies marriage is a contractual agreement between a father and a man wanting a wife. In other words the wife is a piece of property

This fact is born out in The children of Paradise in that only two people truly love, Garrance (Arletty's role) and Baptiste played by Jean Louis Barrault. For them love is the ingredient, but despite this they are deprived of the ability to be together. Their relationship results in only one sexual occurrence. Then the mysterious Garrance disappears from Baptiste life in the swirling madness of celebrants on the Rue de la Crime.

Garrance has three other lovers who have a continuing influence on her life. These are identified in the first half of the dual film. They include a ham actor, Frederick, a petty criminal Lacenaire, and ultimately a titled Count de Montray. Each of these wants to possess her for sexual reasons though with different emphasis. Frederick, because he is a world class romancer, Lacenaire who essentially desires her but won't compromise his own independence to have her, and Montray, who really wants her as a sop to his personal image of possessing a woman of enigmatic beauty that is owned by no one else.

The first segment of the movie involves introducing the principal performers and establishing their relationships. It also includes extensive mime performances that are fully indicative of Barrault's learning the art Mime from Marcel Marceau, France's premier pantomimemist. Garrance is introduced as a minor entertainer, sitting in a tank full of water looking at herself in a mirror while her audience pays to come in an observe her, supposedly expecting something more. Lacenaire is identified as a petty criminal, buying and selling stolen goods. And, we first see Montray when he observes and desires Garrance after seeing her play a statue in one of the Mime productions. All in all it is the Mime segments that are the most interesting in this egment of the overall film.

Section two is far more interesting in that it begins several years later when at this time we find the Baptiste is the talk of Paris because of Miming skills. Frederick has now advanced to an acting principal appearing in a production of Shakespeare's Othello at Paris's principle theatre. Lacenaire is still a criminal, but he has advanced upward. And Arletty, having been observed by the Count has become his mistress and resides at his palatial residence.

In this second segment Arletty is introduced to us as a mysterious beautifully dressed lady wearing a veil and appearing in a box at one of Baptiste's performances. We learn she is a regular attendee at his performances, always coming alone and veiled. Eventually all the players come together. Most importantly Baptiste and Garrance renew their friendship, but more importantly return to the room they occupied the night that Baptiste fled from her in innocent confusion. The single missing scene was her exposing her breasts to him in the initial failed liaison. But now in this renewal their long love is finally consummated.

Frederick has managed to bring them together and confronted the Count who insults him and issues a challenge. Lacenaire has participated in this charade and insults the Count as well. The film ends with Garrance leaving Baptiste, and he following desperately trying to find her in a massive crowd of celebrants on the Rue de la Crime.