Movies 101 - A Star Is Born (1954)

A Star is Born (1954) – 181min – TVPG

Norman Maine (James Mason) is a movie star whose fame is on the decline because of his alcoholism. The studio keeps him away from the press but during a live performance at the Shrine auditorium he arrives intoxicated, he is about to make a fool of himself on stage when one of the singers Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland) includes him in the act to make it look like it was all planed. Her quick thinking saves face for the Studio and Maine. Maine is so take by her quick thinking and talent he encourages her to come to Hollywood to be in motion pictures. Time passes and they go their separate ways, Blodgett tries her hand at acting and gets bit parts and Mane is called away to make a picture overseas. Once he comes back he sponsors her and pulls some strings to get her a starring role and she becomes a star. While her career takes off his completely implodes. Maine’s alcoholism takes over his life Blodgett is willing to give everything up to take care of Maine but he realizes that he is a detriment to her and chooses to take his own life.

This movie is so completely hard to watch, I feel incredibly bad for all of the characters. It’s a story of success, failure, love, pane, hope and hopelessness. This story has been remade twice the original was in 1937 and the other remake was in 1976. I have only seen this one but it looks like it was the only one that has a lot of big stage productions added to the story, Born in a trunk reminds me of Gota Dance from Singin' in the Rain. James Mason will always be the bad guy form North by Northwest for me but this role shows his more dramatic side, his performance was masterfuly done. 

This version of the film had some parts added from the uncut version of the film. The sound was usable and they laid it down with stills that were taken from the production of those sense. Original the film was 196min long and was then cut down to 182min. The Studio was concerned about the length and how many times it could be run in the theater so it was further cut down to 154min. The director George Cukor was not happy about the changes to the film but for the lengthy addition of Born in a Trunk he was already wrapped from the film.

My take away:

I didn't know this was a remake, I guess we will always have remakes in this industry. I should take some time and track the ebb and flow if ideas in Hollywood. When a new idea comes along and how many times they remake it. I am just wondering when they are going to do remakes of Harry Potter or Star Wars. I wonder if they are marked by new technology in film making, Superman the original was made when the technology was vastly inferior to when it first came out. King Kong is another example of this. Hummmm I need to dig further on this.

Movies 101 –Duck Soup

Duck Soup – 68min – N/A

The country of Fredonia is in financial ruin Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) is the wealthiest woman in the country and is supporting the government. She refuses to give any more money unless Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) is appointed as the new leader. Rufus and his secretary, Bob Roland (Zeppo Marx) proceed to run the country into the ground in the mad cap hijinks made famous by the Marx brothers. The neighboring country of Sylvania is eyeing Fredonia for takeover. The Ambassador from Sylvania, Trentino (Louis Calhern), is working to try any way he can to take over the country. He hires two spies Pinky (Harpo Marx), and Chicolini (Chico Marx) to dig up some dirt on Rufus. He even employs the vixen Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres) as a fem fetal to try and manipulate Rufus. Things escalate to a full on war between the two countries. In true vaudevillian style it’s a mixture of sight gags and song numbers. This is not my favorite Marx Brother film but it is one of the better ones in my opinion.

Some of the most memorable scenes were in this movie; the mirror gag is one of my favorites because I first saw this on I Love Lucy between Harpo Marx and Lucy. In the film Harpo is dressed up like Groucho and he is hiding on the other side of what used to be a mirror. They move in unison and even when Groucho thinks that he has Harpo caught, Harpo pulls a switcheroo and mirrors Groucho movie for move. The other scene that stands out is the mini war with the Street vendor. It starts out as a small matter of Chico and Harpo bumping into one of the Lemonade venders (Edgar Kennedy) customers. Then it escalates to knee holding and hat switching and then the burning of a hat it is extremely funny. One of the best fast paced exchanges between three people it’s so well performed that you have to watch it twice to see all the choreography. The second interaction between this trio is extremely funny as well. The Lemonade vender comes back at Harpo and takes some of the Peanuts that Chico is selling and ends up getting his new hat burned. The lemonade vender tips over the Peanut cart and then walks back to his cart to serve the line of customers that have gathered. Harpo begins to help mix the lemonade with his feet.

During this production the relationship between Paramount Studios and the Marx Brothers soured. This is one of the five films that were a part of the Marx brothers and Paramount contract, they separated after this production. This movie originally bombed at the box office and that made the separation a lot easier from paramount’s stand point. As I understand Zeppo also stepped away and started a talent agency with his brother because he was tired of getting bit parts. I would like to do more research on who the relationship fell through.

My Take Away: The Marx Brothers have a very fast and sometimes hard to follow brand of humor. People today don’t often appreciate that the contribution these people made for the genera of comedy. Without the Marx brothers we don’t get to Blazing Saddles or Airplane. I'm going to get you Sucka has that same feel only with a more modern pacing and direction of humor. I guess any spoof film has its roots in these films that came before. Leo McCarey directed this and he is better known for directing An Affare to Remeber. You can view this film on NetFlix watch it now.

Movies 101 – The Scarlet Empress

The Scarlet Empress – 104min – Approved

German princess Sophia Frederica (Marlene Dietrich) is chosen by the Empress Elizabeth (Louise Dresser) to Mary her half-wit son Grand Duke Pete (Same Jaffe) in order to produce an heir to the throne. She is brought to Russia by Count Alexei (John Lodge) a suave member of the court who has designs on the young princess. She arrives and the Empress renames her to Catherine makes her life a living hell, and her husband is a dim wit and wants nothing to do with her. She looks to Alexei for comfort but finds out he is the Empress’ lover. She then finds comfort in the arms of the officers in the Russian Army. When the Empress dies after 17 years, Pete takes the throne and decides to remove his wife, the Russian Army backed Sophia in the power struggle and she became Catharine the Great. This story was put together with great liberty from a journal and many of the facts were adjusted to make a better story.

First and foremost I just want to say what a wonderful actress Marlene Dietrich was. In this roll she had the naiveté of a country girl who is not very experienced in the ways of the politics of court or of sexuality. She then towards the end shows us a woman who has been beaten up and proves to be stronger than the things that she is up against. She uses her knowledge of court and successfully runs a country. She is also a very attractive woman and looks completely innocent at the start of the film and then transitions into a woman of sensuality and power. She is truly stunning to watch. Josef von Sternberg has a wonderful grasp of the fell of the two settings, at the start of the film we feel warmth in each shot and an great feel of comfort from the images, as we enter Russia the images get a darker feel and they start making the viewer more uncomfortable. Sam Jaffe is Very troll like in this film, I recognized him but only just. He does a wonderful job of making Pete an unsavory character.

As the Last feature length film distributed before the Hays Code became the standard, I saw some things in this movie that I would not have thought I would see in a black and white film. When I went through film school I learned about the hays code and how that affected Hollywood. I grew up in a post code world so in my mind all black and white films were tempered with the code. It was refreshing to see a film that was timeless in its themes. Even though this movie was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency for its “morality” it does have a lot of great cinematography and set design as well as an outstanding cast.

My take away:

Marlene Dietrich was a hottie and an excellent performer. I loved the work that Josef von Sternberg did with the scenes of this film. His dark and broody castle and overly exaggerated castle sets gave the Russian Empire an evil subtext. Setting and set design are vital to a production, when you see the family house at the beginning of the film and look at the Russian imperial palace you can see the huge difference in look, feel, tone and perception.

Student Film - The Scarlet Avenger

Most movie reviewers will not revives submissions of student films. I understand that you can get buried with many films that all surround, ninjas, pirates, scateboard tricks or have suicide as a main theme. I imagine that for some it’s painful to watch an armature film. I however love the passion and the raw energy of a student driven project. Many are not done well, but really what do you expect, it’s a student making this film. They are just learning this art form. Even Spielberg, Coppola and Stone have all started out as students.

However there are some film makers who really shine with their story telling and there used of the equipment. If you want my honest opinion and critique of your work feel free to send me a link and I will post it on my blog.

My first student project review comes from Scott Clements, he is Canadian and has made a hero film that harkens back to the days of cliffhanger serials, and it mixes elements from Indian Jones and The Phantom.

Please enjoy it and I will give you my thoughts after you see it.
The Scarlet Avenger (1997 student film) from Scott Clements on Vimeo.

The movie was fun to watch, I appreciate how much work went into this film. They had a very diverse cast; usually student films have a bunch of young people all doing the parts because the film maker gets his buddies to perform. It was well cast and had a good spread in the ages of the performers.

Normally you have to overlook the sets and props and costumes because of budget constraints but the set design in this film really gives you the feeling of being in that time period. Great work on making sure you had the small details.

 I think that making this film all in black and white would have been better because of the setting. It has all the trappings of a good noire film.

Clements wants to develop this character into a feature length film. He has a plan to modify the story. There are a lot of similarities with Captain America characters but after talking with him, he explains where he got the character names.

“We'll definitely be changing the character names for the feature. The name for 'The Scarlet AVENGER' actually came from a mash-up of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' and 'The Avengers' British TV Show. BUCKY came from the 1939 Buck Rogers serial. I saw it when I was a little kid and misheard the sidekick's name as 'Bucky', when it was actually 'Buddy'. I actually meant it as a tribute to that far off memory. THE SKULL was inspired by 'The Crimson Ghost', but admittedly the name was partly borrowed from 'The Red Skull', because I didn't know what else to call him and it was a bit of a tribute to 'Skeletor' from 'He-Man'. However, we've chosen appropriate new names for the feature.”

With the quality of this student project I think he has a good chance of making a go at this kind of film. Imagine what he could do with a real budget and support of a production team.