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JANUARY...
Duck
You Sucker! 1.4.4 At the Movies January
2004
***
Sergio
Leone's Duck
You Sucker! aka Fistful of Dynamite aka Once Upon a Time... the Revolution --
restored with substantial extra footage. Sometimes I make fun of my brother, I'm not saying it's not right. Does anyone read this? Does Steve? Do James Coburn's kids? Does my mom? My mom reads this. That's about it, I think sometimes. Then I get reports that pages are accessed by hundreds of people. Or is that just me hitting the reload button over and over again? So, me and my brother. We have both been fans of director Sergio Leone (The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West -- Steve more into the former; me the latter [Leone's obvious greatest masterpiece]). Duck You Sucker! finally got a rerelease, surprisingly, not at any point, within the city of San Francisco. Nearest was up in San Rafael, where Steve lives, so I said, let's do it. I still have issues about going to movies with Steve. There was the time a few years ago, when I went to see something with him, and halfway through the movie I look over at him and he's wearing a stocking over his head. Like he's going to rob a bank. I got the chills. I was like, "what the fudge are you doing? Take that off!" and he just laughed this maniacal laugh. He still laughs at inappropriate moments, but he's doing better. From the program notes:
So, Leone made very few films. Within the 23 years between 1961 and 1984 he is credited with directing only 7 films: The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), A Fistful of Dollars (1964/1967 in US), For a Few Dollars More (1965/1967 in US), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966/1967 in UA), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968/1969 in US), Duck, You Sucker (1971/1972 in US) (aka Giù la testa, A Fistful of Dynamite, and Once Upon a Time... the Revolution), and Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Sergio Leone was born on January 3, 1929 in Rome, Italy. He died at the age of 60 on April 30, 1989 in Rome, of a heart attack. He did some uncredited directorial work, secondÝunitÝdirector, assistantÝdirector, writer, producer, actor, composer, and miscellaneousÝcrew works. He and Clint Eastwood made international stars out of themselves with a trio of outrageous, original Westerns (made largely by Italians, in Spain, yet taking place in the US in the late 1800s). Eastwood was the so-called Man with No Name in: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Before that Leone had directed Rory Calhoun and dozens of Italians and other Europeans in an odd and rarely seen adventure called The Colossus of Rhodes in 1961. The Eastwood films got better as they went along. They were huge international hits, including within the United States. But it was in 1968 that Leone made his greatest film, and easily one of the ten greatest Westerns ever made, Once Upon a Time in the West. The role Leone had originally intended for Eastwood went to Charlie Bronson, as Eastwood had gone back to the US to become an American movie star. No matter. Bronson's perfect, and even better are Claudia Cardinale as the woman, Jason Robards as the hero's friend and, in the greatest performance of his career, Henry Fonda as the villain. The film was a hit in Europe (in fact, I believe, playing in one Paris theatre for four years straight), but in the US, Paramount cut nearly half the film out in order to show more shows per day and thereby make more money. Of course, the film made no sense this way and bombed with critics and audiences. Leone was displeased. It was three years before he would direct his next film, the largely unseen (at least in it's full original version) Giù la testa (1971), mainly known in the US as Duck, You Sucker. Despite American stars James Coburn and Rod Steiger, the film didn't do much business. Various attempts to remedy this situation involved trying to cash in on titles reminding us of earlier Leone hits, such as A Fistful of Dynamite and Once Upon a Time... the Revolution. Duck You Sucker was a hit nowhere. Leone was crushed, and never directed another film -- until 12 years later. In the US, Once Upon a Time in America (1984) was a relatively well received hit, featuring a large American cast (Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams, Tuesday Weld, Joe Pesci, Burt Young, Danny Aiello, William Forsythe, Richard Bright, James Russo, Estelle Harris, Jennifer Connelly, and Scott Coffey). Back to Duck You Sucker. Coburn's fantastic -- not a difficult task for the great, somewhat under-appreciated and somewhat underused actor. Steiger hams to an extent, but like Pacino's hamming in The Devil's Advocate -- it works in the context. Duck You Sucker is a very good movie, and anyone interested in Leone needs to see the new version. It's overlong. Coburn's Irish accent is a bit much, but is forgotten compared to Steiger's Spanish accent. Morricone/Duck
You Sucker/Spaghetti Western Links: At the imdb. *** House of Sand and
Fog My girlfriend broke up with me shortly before Xgiving. Thought I was getting over it okay. Then came New Year's Eve. Was supposed to go hang out with Pete and bring my dog and he was house-sitting a dog and it was going to be minor, but something. Then Pete was sick. Stayed in. Got depressed. Very strangely in Walgreens buying printer paper and I hear "Ted, Ted, Ted" and I turn around and it's this really neat girl I used to know. And for a second, flashing through my head, is the irrational thought that she's got nothing to do tonight either and we'd hang out and who knows what... But she's picking up pain killers for her boyfriend who fell off his bike or something. They're engaged. And moving. Everyone's moving. I'm alone here in SF. My dozen closest friends over the last 5 - 6 years have moved from SF. Anyway, I got depressed. Had to get out of apartment. Out of town. Drove to LA to visit sister. One day I met my friend Amy (one of those people who moved from SF last year) for dinner and a movie. We were thinking of seeing that crappy Julia Roberts movie or House of Sand and Fog. House of was supposed to be better. But I was down, and figured that Mona Lisa Smile would be more upbeat -- plus it co-stars the wonderful Kirsten Dunst. Then I remembered that it takes place at the college that my recently ex-girlfriend went to. So, House of Sand and Fog contained some good performances -- especially by Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley. Story: Connelly's dead father spent his life paying off this house in the San Francisco area. The government takes it away from her unfairly -- accidentally. But by the time that's been straightened out Kingsley's bought it and plans to quadruple it's value in a resale. He was a rich man once in Iran, but works non-stop a couple of crappy jobs so that he can keep up appearances for his family and friends. Connelly is trying to stay off the cigarettes and gets back on them once her house is taken. She cleans houses for a living and barely scrapes by. Then she starts on the booze again. We sympathize with Connelly and Kingsley, but there is a character (played by Ron Eldard) who isn't really a character but a plot device to move this film towards it's final tragic climax. That's the biggest flaw. I like Ron Eldard. It's not his fault -- it's his poorly written part. The great Kim Dickens is barely used as Eldard's wife. Frances Fisher is Connelly's lawyer; Shohreh Aghdashloo is good (there's Oscar talk) as Kingsley's wife and Jonathan Ahdout is their son. At the imdb. *** My Baby's Daddy is the first film I reviewed for mediasharx.com. Check out that review here. *** Castro's 2nd Annual Noir Fest took place in between January 16‚29, 2004. NOIR CITY: Now entering Noir City ... And this time the women are on top! Author and film noir expert Eddie Muller returns for the second annual Noir City Film Festival with an amazing two-week selection of the finest in murder and mayhem. Friday January
16 From the site/calendar: "Now entering Noir City... And this time the women are on top! Author and film noir expert Eddie Muller returns for the second annual Noir City Film Festival with an amazing two-week selection of the finest in murder and mayhem." "And this time the women are on top!" is an obvious sexual reference -- and who doesn't love those? Or sex? Well, besides Born Again Christain types, priests, Puritans, etc. Whatever. On with the festival... The Noir Festival opened with -- this is funny -- a special $20 reception with Ann Savage -- star of the classic B noir cheapie Detour, which was the one and only film shown that night -- at 8pm. The reception began at 6:30. I was being optimistic the week before by buying two tickets, hoping to bring someone with me. Of all the people I asked (2) neither could come. So there's 20 bucks out the window right there. I actually considered not going. But I went. I got there around 6:45. Whisked right in for my $20. I just walked into the theatre and there were people in there, and I don't know, but I began to realize there must have been a "reception" in some other part of the theatre. But I didn't really care. What did I have to say? "Hi, Ms. Savage." What did I want, some free patee? How in the hell do you spell pate? (Pâté, that's how.) Anyway, I expected her to talk on stage about the film -- which she did afterwards. So, this guy Eddie Muller -- he hosts and sets up these noir fests and has written a few books. And he goes out there and finds people like Ann Savage -- who will be 83 next month (February 19, 2004) -- and, well, I was glad I went. This lady came up on stage after the film and talked and told some stories and was really still in good shape. It was really something to see her starring as this nasty, nasty femme fatale in Detour (1945), and then moments later to see her 60 years older, up on the same stage talking and fielding questions. But there were a few times she received applause -- you know when her name showed up on screen, and when Muller pointed to her and said something. But at one point, when the film was over, and she was getting up and heading towards the stage slowly the audience got onto it's feet. This nice old lady, a one-time very B actress, here she is, flown up to SF and is in the huge Castro Theatre -- jam-packed, and everyone is on their feet giving her a standing ovation as she walks up to the stage. I just kept thinking, "God, this must be like the greatest day of this woman's life." So I was standing and applauding. And I was moved. She got up there, reminding me of my dad's mother, very wry, very cool, very funny, never vulgar, but implying an understanding of what vulgarity is, without letting it offend her. Her hearing wasn't 20/20, but well, neither is mine anymore. And she kept switching the mic with her hands and made crackling noises, Eddie caught on to this and tried to help out. She was helped up onto the stage. But this lady is in her 80s, and for the most part she was totally on top of her game. She had some neat stories, which she told in a very sort of modest way (particularly funny because her Detour character was such an awful nasty bitch). But she was a sweetheart, but not a goody-two-shoes. She told a story about when her Detour co-star (whom she made four films with), Tom Neal came up to her while she was being made up and lit for a scene... He said, "Hey Ann, I got something to tell you" and he leaned in close and -- stuck his tongue in her ear. She was shocked and embarrassed and didn't know what to do, and instinctively she just pulled back and punched him. TOM NEAL Poor Tommy Neal never really made anything of himself -- as an actor. Not to say he wasn't well known for his off-screen work, which revolved around scandal, mayhem and murder. Neal was a boxer at Northwestern University; then debuted on Broadway in 1935. He got a law degree from Harvard in 1938 and made his screen debut the same year in an Andy Hardy film. Throughout the 1940's and into the 1950's he appeared mostly as tough guys in Hollywood low-budgeters. In 1951, in a dispute over the on-again, off-again affections and the wavering allegiance of the actress Barbara Payton, he took to violence against his rival as Payton's paramour, the aristocratic actor Franchot Tone. The former college boxer Neal inflicted upon Tone a smashed cheekbone, a broken nose and a brain concussion. Hollywood film studios essentially blackballed Neal thereafter, but he would come to find a livelihood in gardening and landscaping. He was brought to trial in 1965 for the murder of his wife Gale, who it was determined had been shot to death with a .45-caliber bullet to the back of her head. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Tom Neal in California's cyanide-gas chamber. The trial jury, however, convicted him only of "involuntary manslaughter," for which he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. On 7 December 1971 he was released on parole from imprisonment, having served exactly six years to the day. Eight months later, Tom Neal was dead of heart failure. (Much of that info about Neal was taken from someone's IMDb bio on Neal.) Neal had four wives: Vicky Lane (1948 - 1950, divorced); Barbara Payton (1952 - 1952, divorced); Patricia Fenton (1956 - 1958, her death; 1 son, the actor Tom Neal Jr. [b.1957]); Gale Bennett (or Evatt?) (1960 - 1965, her death). But back to Ann Savage. She'll be gone soon. Pete and I saw Budd Boetticher at the Pacific Film Archive -- seems like a couple of years ago -- we saw the awesome Seven Men from Now (1956) and also (what Boetticher seemed to consider his classic -- although it is not -- it just had a bigger budget) The Bullfighter and the Lady (1951). He was there and talked and talked. Quite a character. Seemed like he was dead within the year. He died in 2001, at 85. Savage and Muller told a funny story about how when they first met. Muller was writing a book on "noir dames" or something and she invited him over to her Hollywood apartment (yes, she still lives there). She's like, "Eddie, get down on your knees" (Castro audience laughs). Eddie does. She's like, "look under the bed." Eddie does. There's like a couple of shotguns, a rifle, couple of revolvers and automatics -- I don't know guns -- but she says, "Now, you're not going to make me look bad with this book are you?" Pretty funny stuff. So, I was glad I went -- plus, I had actually never seen Detour. At the imdb. *** Mildred
Pierce & Next day. This was a good time: there's this friend of mine, and I've known her for years, like, say maybe... 4 years? But we were friends of friends, and never really hung out until lately; I've been going to yoga with her. Here's some interesting stuff: I was with this person for several hours and I was happy for, like, the whole time. Also: I wasn't thinking about my ex-girlfriend at all. But, and this is the kicker. (Kicker? Do I use that term? Do I say "kicker"?) Usually when I hang out with people, friends, whoever, in the back of my mind I'm always thinking about when it's going to end; when it's going to be over, and I can go home. That's just bad, I'm trying not to do that. But when I was with this person I didn't have to try. It didn't even occur to me to want to be someplace else. It's a thing my dad does. It's like he wants to get back home to do nothing. Dad sits around all day playing solitaire, checking his stocks, bothering Mom. And at parties or whatever, he always wants to leave first. And before it used to bother me, like I thought he was this fuddy-duddy type. Like when I was a kid and my parents and their friends would have parties, I'd love when they'd go late -- like til one in the morning. I liked the excitement. Never were all these people up til one! But he would be always trying to get everyone out of there early. But why? I'm not sure. But I'm sure it's the same reason I do it. I don't try to get rid of people; but everyone who knows me knows I sneak out of parties or bars early. And what do I do? I go home and do nothing. I go online and surf the internet; I watch TV. If it's during a period where I'm drinking, I, well, drink. So, anyway, back to Saturday and Double Indemnity and all of that. Anyway this friend of mine is moving far away in a few months so there goes that. And everybody leaves SF. And, therein, me. Meaning, they leave me. Seriously, almost everyone I hang out with now is going to be gone in a matter of months: Hannah, Marnie, Patricia, Aaron, Maya. Anyway, this friend of mine and I walked from her place down to the Castro (half a mile? more?) for possibly the two best known noirs of the festival: James M. Cain & the Queens of Noir... DOUBLE
INDEMNITY 1:00,
5:15, 9:40 Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson. The
ne plus ultra
of noir. Cainís story, Raymond Chandlerís script,
Wilderís cunning showmanshipóand seven Oscar nodsóspawned Hollywoodís dark
renaissance of mordant murder thrillers. It still hasnít been equaled.
Directed by Billy Wilder. (1944) 106m. There was something else about watching these movies with someone you can tell was enjoying them. It was her idea to stay for the second one. My ex-girlfriend was never like that. And none of that is any kind of deal-breaker or deal-maker, it's just something that I realized later. It was really nice, and un-anxiety-wreaking, because I could tell she was enjoying them. But everyone's like that. Like, say, I tell my mom to rent this certain movie, and Dad's like, what's this? and Mom's like oh a movie Ted told me to rent, and Dad's like oh well can't I watch it too? and Mom's like sure, and they watch it and Dad's totally open (something he usually isn't about real life, ha ha) about not liking it, and so that makes Mom nervous and she doesn't really end up appreciating the movie as much as she would have had she watched it with, say, me, and I'm so done with this paragraph. Mildred Pierce at imdb. *** Torque is the second film I reviewed for mediasharx.com. Check out that review here. *** Sadly I missed some key noir here. Noir that I'd been lucky enough to see once before, but would have loved to see again. It's never been available on DVD or video. Thursday January 22 was The Reckless Moment at 9:10 Joan Bennett (awesome, hot), James Mason (totally cool, totally rad), Geraldine Brooks. Suburban housewife goes to extraordinary lengths to cover up a murder committed by her daughter. Then roguish blackmailer James Mason enters the picture: sadist or saint? Directed by Max Ophuls. (1949) 82m. The Deep End (2001) with (Tilda Swinton and Goran Visnjic) was sort of a remake of it. It's a Max Ophuls film -- one of only four he made in the US -- two with Mason. I was doing yoga, which went from like 7:30 to 9pm, so I pretty much figured I'd miss it. Friday
January 23 Technicolor Noir! Muller's a cool guy. I saw some films at last year's SF noir thing he did. He was there every night to introduce. As you know, I was there opening night and star of opening night's film, Detour (classic SUPER B noir), Ann Savage was there and spoke and the theatre was packed, and when she came up to speak, she got a standing ovation, and I thought to myself, how nice that must be. Here's this 80+ year old B actress whose career ended decades ago, now receiving this. How nice for her to know that not only was she not forgotten, but that so many people appreciated her! I said as much to Muller and he was like, yeah. You also know that then I saw Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce last Saturday with Hannah, and it was like again, jam packed. Then last night packed again for Leave Her To Heaven and Desert Fury. Have you seen Leave Her to Heaven with Gene Tierney? Quote from my mom: "Gene Tierney was so beautiful." I met up with my friend Pete after Leave Her to Heaven, and then talked to Eddie Muller, who Pete knows, and then Pete and I watched Desert Fury up in the balcony and made out. Totally kidding. Pete is my oldest friend, going back to seventh grade. I'm pretty sure, actually, that we both like to make out with women -- not that there'd be anything wrong if we didn't. Anyway, enough of this. Gene Tierney, in the awesome and outrageous Leave Her to Heaven, is sort of like a femme fatale and then some. She's sick in the head. I hadn't seen it in years, but there are like 3 or 4 moments that you just never forget from that movie if you ever see it. Insane, gaudy. It was late, and so we weren't totally into Desert Fury, an okay contempo western noir, filmed in hot, intense Technicoler, never on VHS or DVD, but AMC used to show it a lot quite a few years ago. Good cast: John Hodiak (his fifth year in films, he would go on to die of coronary thrombosis at 41 in 1955), Lizabeth Scott (the noir queen in only her third or fourth film role; she appeared in only 22 films, beginning in 1945, and ending in 1972 -- although she is still alive today apparently, at age 81), Burt Lancaster (very commanding in only his second or third film), Wendell Corey (in his film debut, and originally being groomed for stardom, it didn't take, Corey made about 40 films between 1947 and 1969 -- including Rear Window, actually dying of alcoholism in 1968 at the age of 54), Mary Astor, Kristine Miller, William Harrigan, James Flavin, Ray Teal. Directed by Lewis Allen. Screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides (who also wrote Kiss Me Deadly [1955], Track of the Cat [1954], On Dangerous Ground [1952] and They Drive by Night [1940])& Robert Rossen, based on Ramona Stewart's novel Desert Town. Original Music by Miklós Rózsa. Cinematography by Edward Cronjager & Charles Lang. Crazy Cowboy Costumes by Edith Head. Produced by Hal B. Wallis for Paramount. Director Lewis Allen made nearly 20 features, but after the mid-fifties survived mainly on television work. His films are:
Leave Her to
Heaven at imdb. *** Big Fish. UA Metro. 4pm. Tuesday, January 20, 2004. $7. Ticket bought at 3:44pm. The most interesting thing I can say about this film is that writer-actor Spalding Gray saw it, and then promptly committed suicide. Many cinephiles consider certain directors to be, well, God. Of course the Coen Brothers. And also Tim Burton. They aren't. They all have a neat, identifiable visual style. Other than the perfect Miller's Crossing, and possibly Fargo, the Coen Brothers tend to disappoint in cases of style over substance. Burton's films too, have a neat look and style, but at their heart they are but insubstantial children's ghost stories. Here, he's a bit more serious, and maybe, a bit more successful. Big Fish is about a young man trying to learn the truth about his father's life, and his own background, from his dying father. His dying father -- who constantly filled his son's head with outrageous fish stories of his life. The very nice cast includes Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Marion Cotillard, Steve Buscemi, Danny DeVito and especially, Robert Guillaume (best known as TV's Benson on "Benson" and "Soap." Directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay by John August, based on Daniel Wallace's novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions. Original Music by Danny Elfman; song "Man of the Hour" by Eddie Vedder and performed by Pearl Jam. At imbd. *** Saw Butterfly Effect on January 25, 2004 at the Kabuki, 11:30am; 1.25.04; R; Aud # 1; $7. My review is here at mediasharx.com. *** On Saturday, January 31, 2004, I saw The Perfect Score; Comedy, 01:43 minutes, Rated PG-13. 2:30pm; Walnut Creek Century; ticket bought at 2:11pm from Tasha; $9. My actual review is here at mediasharx.com. Driving back from Walnut Creek to San Francisco took almost 2 hours. This is Saturday afternoon, it made no sense. Yes, it was Superbowl Sunday, but the Superbowl was in Houston. And the 49ers weren't in it. The Raiders weren't even in it. And the traffic. And a bunch of other shitty, lame things that had gone on the week before didn't help. I paid full price, $9 for, what used to be considered a matinee show -- 2:30 in the afterfuckingnoon -- at the dumb new Walnut Creek Mega-Movie-Cineplex.
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