Paramount Summer Classic Film Series: Two Sides of Jimmy Stewart

Jimmy Stewart is quite possibly the most likable person ever.  His roles in films such as It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, among many others, established a very guy-next-door persona for him.  The fact that he put his career on hold to fight in World War II probably didn't hurt either.  But he wasn't just a good guy; he was a great actor, capable of playing a wide variety of characters.  The two films in this double feature, Harvey and Anatomy of a Murder, truly displayed his range.

In Harvey (1950), Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, a kind and pleasant man, whose best friend, after whom the movie is named, is a six-foot tall, invisible rabbit.

Since Elwood is the only person who can see Harvey, his family believes him to be quite out of his mind.  Concerned, and more than a little embarrassed, by his behavior, Elwood's sister Veta Simmons (Josephine Hull), takes Elwood to the local sanitarium to have him committed.  Elwood is escorted to a room, and Veta remains downstairs to talk to Dr. Sanderson (Charles Drake).  Due to a series of miscommunications, the doctor takes Veta for the one who needs treatment, and has her committed instead.  Elwood is brought back down from his room and the doctor apologizes to him.  Dr. Chumley (Cecil Kellaway), the head psychiatrist at the sanitarium, fires Dr. Sanderson for his oversight.  Elwood, however, is totally unfazed; he happily accepts the apology, and invites the doctor out for a drink at Charlie's, his favorite local bar.

Meanwhile, Veta has called her friend, Judge Gaffney (William H. Lynn), to help prove that she does not need psychiatric treatment.  Realizing that Elwood is, in fact, the one who is hallucinating, everyone sets out to find him.  When they do, he is having a drink alone, and explains that Dr. Chumley has left with Harvey.  Elwood is taken back to the sanitarium for treatment.  While they wait for him to receive his injection, the cab driver who brought them to the sanitarium asks Veta for his fare.  She searches her purse, but cannot find her money.  The cab driver refuses to wait until after the injection has been administered, so Veta is forced to interrupt the treatment to get the money from Elwood.  He, of course, pays for it gladly and then returns to have the injection.  However, Veta, fearing that the treatment will alter her brother's kind nature, stops the doctor before the injection is administered.

Dr. Chumley, who really can see Harvey, reinstates Dr. Sanderson, then sends everyone away without saying anything about the giant rabbit.  Elwood stays a bit longer than the others, to say good-bye to his friend.  But as he is leaving, Harvey changes his mind and decides to stay with Elwood.

I thought this was good, fun comedy of errors with a lot of heart.  Stewart is charming as Elwood.  Hull's Veta is appropriately obnoxious and entertaining.  I liked the fact that there was no actor in a rabbit suit allowing the audience to see Harvey.  It leaves room for the audience to wonder whether Elwood really is crazy, and it makes the moment when Veta changes her mind about Elwood's treatment more heartfelt and genuine.  I don't think the film would have worked as well without those elements.  At the end of the film, we get to see that Harvey does, in fact, exist.  Once Elwood's treatment is cancelled, Veta finds her wallet in her purse.  Did Harvey hide it, in an attempt to save his friend?  I like to think he did.  But it's not stated that Harvey is real until he starts to go stay with Dr. Chumley.  Up until then, always polite, Elwood has opened the door for Harvey.  Now though, Harvey opens doors for himself.  Seeing doors swing open and closed on their own is confirmation that Harvey exists.  

We follow up with Anatomy of a Murder (1959), in which Jimmy Stewart stars as Paul Biegler, a small-town lawyer defending Lt. Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara), who stands accused of murdering the man who raped his wife, Laura (Lee Remick).  In the courtroom, Biegler is up against the hard-headed Asst. State Attorney General Claude Dancer (George C. Scott), a man whose character is the opposite of Biegler's.  It's a tough, complicated case.  It seems that everyone involved could just as easily be guilty as innocent.

This is a fascinating film.  First of all, it's got one hell of a cast.  All are perfectly suited to their parts.  Stewart's Biegler is still a good guy, but he's also a smart, fast-talking attorney who does what he needs to do to win his case.  It's fun to watch, and play along, as he unravels the case.  Gazzara is great in everything I've seen him in, and this is no exception.  He plays the loving husband, but subtly shows the jealous side of the character.  It's just enough to make you believe he could fly off the handle and commit the murder out of jealousy at seeing another man show interest in his wife. Remick walks the line between victim and seductress perfectly, so that when her innocence is called into question in the courtroom, you almost buy it.

Duke Ellington's Grammy award winning score is surprising and interesting.  It definitely gives the film a specific tone and helps raise the stakes in every scene.

Another thing I like about this film is how risky it was for its time.  Frank discussion of such things as rape and women's panties may be commonplace now, but it was a shock to the 1959 moviegoer.  Considering all that, plus Otto Preminger's direction, it's no surprise that this was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series: Chaplin in the Sound Era

Charlie Chaplin was one of the most influential directors and actors in the history of film.  While I, personally, think Buster Keaton does a better job in the physical comedy department, Chaplin is undeniably fun to watch.  I like the vaudevillian style of the Little Tramp, his signature character, and the versatility of his work.  This double feature paired The Great Dictator (1940) and Modern Times (1936).

This was the first time I had ever seen The Great Dictator, and I didn't know a whole lot about it going in.  I knew it was about WWII, and that was about it.  From Paramount film programmer Jesse Trussell's film notes, I learned that it was Hollywood's second comic portrayal of Hitler (following The Three Stooges' short You Nazty Spy earlier that year) and that Chaplin drew some inspiration for the film from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film, Triumph of the Will.  Some scenes in The Great Dictator are direct parodies of scenes from Triumph of the Will.  Chaplin began filming The Great Dictator in 1939, shortly after the start of WWII, after hearing about Hitler's actions from his European Jewish friends.  So there's some context.  Thanks, Jesse.

The film opens with a battle scene in which a young soldier (Chaplin) saves the life of a military pilot named Schultz (Reginald Gardiner).  Chaplin has the crowd laughing right out of the gate, with gags featuring a faulty cannon and an upside down flight.  The soldier is injured in the process and spends a great deal of time in the hospital after the war.  When he returns home to his Jewish neighborhood in Tomania, his memory of the war lost due to his injury, he discovers that the Jewish community in Tomania is suffering from persecution by the Tomanian dictator, Hynkel (also played by Chaplin).  The young soldier experiences the persecution firsthand when he tries to reopen the barber shop he left behind when he went to war.  Hynkel's followers have painted "Jew" on the windows of all businesses owned by Jewish people.  Confused, Chaplin's character begins to wash his off.  Hilarity ensues when Hynkel's soldiers catch him and try to repaint the window.  Soon after this, the Jewish community bands together to fight the persecution.  During their fight, Chaplin's character becomes close with Hannah (Paulette Goddard), a spirited young woman who came to his aid when Hynkel's soldiers attempted to arrest him for washing his window.  Schultz, remembering the young soldier who once saved his life, also eventually joins their cause, turning his back on Hynkel and his oppressive policies.

On the other side of the story is Dictator Hynkel.  As you probably guessed, Hynkel is a parody of Hitler, and Chaplin portrays his as a childish ruler who speaks in gibberish a lot of the time.  When Hynkel learns that Schultz has joined forces with the Jews, he has him arrested.  He also sends soldiers to capture all the Jews and put them in concentration camps.  Schultz and the Barber manage to escape. Hynkel doesn't seem to notice because he is busy planning an attack on a neighboring country.  The young Barber is mistaken for Hynkel and brought up to speak before a crowd of Hynkel's followers and all the citizens of Tomania, who are eagerly listening on the radio.  The listeners include Hannah and her family, who were forced to flee when Hynkel's soldiers came after all the Jewish people.

The ending speech is moving.  At the time, it served to remind audiences of the grave circumstances going on around them.  World War II was raging.  Hundreds of thousands of people died.  Unbelievable atrocities against humanity were being committed.  It probably felt as though the world was going to hell in a hand basket.  This was meant to call attention to those things, and to inspire people to stand against them.   And it remains relevant even now, 72 years later.

This film is fantastic.  It's funny.  It's inspiring.  It's fascinating to watch Charlie Chaplin play two extremely different characters.

Next, we moved on to Modern Times.

This is probably my favorite Chaplin movie.  Even though it is part of the sound era, it has no dialogue.  Chaplin intended it to be his first talkie, but experiments showed that audiences would not react well to hearing The Tramp speak.  This was The Tramp's last appearance.  Chaplin used this film to critique American life during the Great Depression, specifically poor (and sometimes downright inhumane) working conditions.  Again, thanks to Jesse Trussell for the context.  

In this one, The Tramp is a factory worker who is fired from his job following a nervous breakdown caused by the working conditions in the factory.  He gets treatment for his breakdown and sets off to return to work when he accidentally ends up at the front of a Communist demonstration march.  He is arrested and sent to jail.  During his misadventures, he meets the Gamin (Paulette Goddard), an orphan girl living on the streets near the town port.  She has stolen a loaf of bread, and the police are chasing her.  He helps her escape arrest, but ends up in jail.  They quickly fall in love, and after his release from jail, she sets about finding them a house and he goes in search of a job.  He eventually goes back to work at the factory he worked at when the film began, and she finds a job as a performer in a night club.  After another series of mishaps, The Tramp is fired from the factory, and the Gamin helps him get a job as a waiter in the night club where she works.  As it turns out, he is a terrible waiter, but a good singer, so their boss tells him to perform instead.  The police, who have been pursuing the Gamin since she escaped arrest, track them down at the night club and come after her.  The Tramp and the Gamin flee, and set off in search of a new home in a new town.

This film contains some of my favorite Chaplin gags, including the trapped-in-the-gears bit.  I never cease to be impressed by what they were able to accomplish without the special effects technology that is available now.  The upside down flight in the Great Dictator is a great one too.  Modern Times is also interesting in that it's a sound film without dialogue.  It does use sound effects though.  Machinated voices are heard barking orders in the factory where The Tramp works, and there is a very Big Brother-ish scene in which the boss' face appears on a screen in the men's room telling the workers taking their time in there to get back to work.  The sound effects are mostly used to help make the point about the harshness of working conditions at the time.

This is a great pair of films, and I'm glad I got the chance to see them on the big screen.  If you haven't seen them, I recommend that you do so. They are both available for streaming on Hulu Plus.

Up next: A double helping of Jimmy Stewart featuring Harvey and Anatomy of a Murder.

Movies: God Bless America

So, I have been particularly busy this month, and thus haven't had time to write posts about several things I have gone to see.  But, I have just begun a three day weekend, and I have decided to add catching up on the blog to my list of projects for this short time off.  Starting with Bobcat Goldthwait's God Bless America.

Have you ever wanted to punch someone in the face for being obnoxious, rude, or just downright stupid?  If so, you will probably like this movie.  Frank (Joel Murray) is surrounded by idiots.  His neighbors are unbelievably inconsiderate.  His coworkers are incapable of holding a conversation about anything other than the latest celebrity gossip.    When he turns on the television, all he sees is more stupidity and cruelty.  Usually, Frank deals with that by fantasizing about killing all the terrible people in his life.  When he learns that he is dying of cancer, he just can't take it anymore. So, he goes out and actually kills someone.  His first victim is Chloe, a high school student from a reality TV show akin to My Super Sweet Sixteen, or any show that features spoiled rich kids who have done absolutely nothing to deserve that sort of attention.  Frank shows up to Chloe's school, and shoots her, point blank.  Frank originally intended to stop there, and kill himself before getting caught.  However, Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), another student at Chloe's school, witnesses the shooting, and convinces Frank to keep up the good work, and to let her tag along.  Together, they set out to make the world, or at least the country, a better place, by ridding it of it's most abhorrent citizens.

Thinking back, it occurs to me that this movie requires a pretty significant suspension of disbelief.  It's pretty unlikely that a middle aged man and a teenage girl going around shooting people point blank in broad daylight would go very long without getting caught.  That said, I really enjoyed this for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, it's lighthearted and funny; a good time at the movies.  Underneath that, it's pointing out a lot of the things that are wrong with today's society.  It takes shots at everything from the triviality of the things that the general population is concerned with to the lengths some people are willing to go to for their fifteen minutes of fame to the horrendous ways some people/groups are treated.  At the beginning of the film, Frank eloquently explains his frustrations to a coworker in a monologue that includes the question, "Why do we have a civilization if we're no longer interested in being civilized?"  Watching all the people Frank encounters on a daily basis, coupled with that monologue made me even more grateful for the people I have in my life.  I understand that a lot of those characters are probably exaggerated for comic effect, but even so, I am glad that I have managed to surround myself with people who are not even a little bit like that.  All of my friends are thoughtful, intelligent people who read for pleasure, enjoy a challenge, and are willing to work hard at the things they are passionate about.  They inspire and challenge me, and I am a better person for knowing them.  I am a lucky girl.

Coming up: lots of posts about the Paramount's Summer Classic Film Series.  I have gotten to attend several double features in the last couple of weeks.  While I have fallen hopelessly behind on my Netflix queue project, I just can't pass up the opportunity to catch these movies on the big screen.

Operation: Conquer the Netflix Queue: Brokeback Mountain

As I remember, this movie got a lot of attention when it came out, back in 2005, for being "the gay cowboy movie."  It's more than that, though.  It's a story about love of the purest kind; not only does it survive time, distance, lack of acceptance, and even the mens' own fears about their feelings.

Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), meet in the summer of 1963, when they, by chance, both show up to look for work as shepherds on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming.  They are both hired, and spend the summer together atop the mountain, where their affair begins.  Even though I knew the story, that part still caught me by surprise.  Leading up to it, they don't speak to each other much, mostly because Ennis is a man of very few words.  And, it isn't clear that they are attracted to each other at first.  So, when, after a few days and a few shots of whiskey, they have sex, it's a little surprising.  The scene is completely unromantic.  There is no soft lighting or background music.  It actually borders on violent.  Afterwards, Ennis tells Jack that he "ain't no queer," and that it's a "one shot thing."  Jack agrees.  But it's not.  The summer ends, and both boys go back to their lives, Ennis in Wyoming and Jack in Texas.  Years pass, both get married and have children.  But sometimes, Jack visits Ennis in Wyoming, and the two go on "fishing trips."

On one of these visits, Ennis' wife Alma (Michelle Williams), catches Ennis and Jack kissing.  She doesn't say anything, but she does notice that Ennis never brings home any fish.  From there, it's not hard for her to put two and two together, but she shoulders the burden of knowing that her husband is not in love with her, but with another man silently for a long time.  Eventually, Ennis and Alma get a divorce.  She still hasn't said that she know about Ennis and Jack, but Ennis probably knows.  Williams' performance in this role is excellent.  She particularly stands out in a couple of scenes.  In one, Ennis is leaving on one of his "fishing trips," but he's left his tackle box behind.  "Hey, aren't you forgetting something?" she asks.  He comes back in, gives her a kiss, and leaves.  Without picking up the tackle box.  By this point, she already knows about Ennis and Jack, and this is just further confirmation for her.  In the moment that the camera lingers on her, I could feel that knowledge weighing on her and imagine how much it must hurt.  The other is a scene in which she finally tells Ennis that she knows he wasn't fishing with Jack.  They are already divorced, and she is remarried, but Ennis has come over to have Thanksgiving dinner with her and his daughters.  While they are alone in the kitchen, Alma tells Ennis that she once left him a note in his tackle box: "Please bring home some fish."  After Ennis returned home, without any fish, she saw that the note was untouched.  In one of his most expressive moments in the film, Ennis angrily grabs her by the arm.  She is frightened, and yells at him to leave.  It is clear that, though she has moved on since the divorce, she must have truly loved Ennis, maybe she still does, and that his betrayal of their marriage still hurts her.

That scene is a big one for Ennis too, as it's one of the only times we get to see him be really emotional.  If the movie didn't focus so closely on Ennis and Jack, we might not get to know Ennis at all, he is so guarded.  Ledger shows that in every facet of Ennis.  It shows in the way Ennis carries himself throughout the movie, in the way he speaks, and in what he says.  Physically, he always seems to be pulling into himself.  He doesn't say much, and when he does speak, it's through almost closed lips.  There are only a few scenes in which he lets his guard down, and most of those happen when no other characters are present.  In one though, he reveals something to Jack that tells us as the audience a lot about why he is the way he is.  He tells Jack that when he was just a kid, there were two men in town who were living together.  One day, those two men were found beaten to death, and Ennis' father made sure that he and his brother saw the bodies.  "Hell,"  he says, "for all I know, he {Ennis' father} did it." So, from a very young age, he was taught to believe that the way he felt was wrong.  That he wasn't supposed to be the way he was.  It's a pivotal moment, not just because it helps the audience understand Ennis as a character, but also because he is doing something uncharacteristic by sharing it.  There is a scene at the end of the movie, after Jack has died, in which Ennis breaks down while going through Jack's room during a visit to his parents.  He actually cries.  It's unexpected from a man who for most of the film goes out of his way to hide his feelings.

Jack accepts himself more readily than Ennis, which is most likely why he is always the one going out of his way to visit Ennis, making a greater effort to keep their relationship alive.  Ennis is terrified of being found out, while Jack seems much less concerned about it.  That fact made his character arc a little less interesting, for me at least, because he didn't seem to have the same inner conflict that Ennis had.  He's likable, and it's heartbreaking when he dies, but at least some of that comes from Ennis' reaction to it.  That is also the scene that stood out most to me for Lureen (Anne Hathaway), Jack's wife.  Ennis calls her to find out what happened to Jack, and as she tells Ennis about how Jack was trying to change a tire and it exploded, causing the hubcap to fly into his face, breaking his nose and leaving him lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood.  By the time he was found, it was too late.  During the story, we see Jack getting beaten to death with a tire iron, just like the two men from Ennis' youth.  I couldn't help but wonder, was that what really happened, or is that Ennis' imagination.  The scene stood out for Lureen's character for me because it was the first time I wondered whether she knew, or at least suspected, anything about the relationship between Jack and Ennis.

I really like character driven stuff like this, which I suppose is why I had so much to say about it.  More than I thought I would.  As far as I'm concerned, all the special effects in the world can't hold a candle to really great characters portrayed by really solid actors.  Explosions and car chases and whatnot can be fun, but if you have engaging characters and a good story, you don't need all those bells and whistles.  I really appreciated that about this film.  That and the underlying message about love and acceptance.  Sometimes, I just need to see something that reminds me that true love can survive anything, even when it's far from perfect or comes from an unexpected place.  The fact that this happens to involve a gay couple brings to mind everything that has been in the news recently about gay rights.  Granted, that has been overshadowed by the "zombie attack" stories, but it's still an important issue.  This story starts in 1963, and homosexuality was harshly persecuted at that time.  As a society, I think we like to think we've come a long way since then, but, in this particular issue, I'm not so sure that we have.  And that is devastating to me.  It isn't anyone's place to judge another person for who they fall in love with.  We should be celebrating the fact that they were able to find love at all.  Or at least letting them celebrate it.

But I digress.  And knowing the people who are most likely to be reading this, I expect I'm just preaching to the choir anyway.  Next on the list is a very long movie about Mozart.