6/26/24
Newsletter #624
The Crack of Dawn
I am so sick of seeing movies with cops of any kind, FBI, CIA, hitmen or women or kids, or courtrooms, or interrogation rooms, or jails or prisons, I could go screaming into the night. They all have to follow a heavy litany of weary cliches that have all been used so many times that you can’t get through them fast enough. Therefore, I try to avoid all that shit, but still keep watching movies. My old buddy, Rick, had a theory, “If anyone is holding a gun on the poster, skip it.”
One approach is to watch old movies, which I do all the time. Also, to rewatch films that I know I like and see if my old affection remains. For instance, I just rewatched Shane (1954), which is deservedly a classic, and not only Alan Ladd’s best movie, but I’d go so far as to say that it’s director, George Stevens’, best movie, too. I’ve never been George Stevens’ biggest fan, and honestly don’t care for A Place in the Sun (1951), although it looks great and has a terrific cast. But seriously, Shelly Winters’ character is so awful you can’t kill her fast enough. Shane, however, has a clear, believable, mythic quality right away. Without the use of some kind of special effects, I have no idea how they planned for and set up the shot of Shane’s arrival – it’s a miracle shot. The kid played by the incomparable Brandon De Wilde (who is given the credit, “Introducing Brandon De Wilde,” except that he had co-starred in The Member of the Wedding [1953] the year before), is pretending to hunt with his little toy gun. He spots an antlered elk nibbling at his mother’s garden. He sights in and says, “Bang,” and the elk looks up at him. Directly between its antlers in the background is the first time we see Shane as he comes riding up. How did they get that shot? Shane is perfectly centered between the antlers, and that’s a real elk on a real mountainside with a real guy riding up. It’s incredible. In his star-making part, (Walter) Jack Palance as the coffee-drinking gunman is mesmerizing. Alan Ladd was never better, and I like both Jean Arthur and Van Heflin. Oh, and it’s a great part for Elisha Cook Jr. – the perpetually offended reb.
I have already gushed once about the young Vivian Leigh, and now I will do it again. I just rewatched Storm in a Teacup (1937), an “A” British film and she got top billing over ridiculously young Rex Harrison. Vivian Leigh was a star right away and had a real career in British cinema before Gone With the Wind, which in many ways destroyed her. She was too tightly wired for superstardom. In just over ten years she would not only play, but be, Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), depending on the kindness of strangers. But before Hollywood she has a glowing, beautiful, self-assurance that totally transcends the rather run-of-the-mill material. Every one of her entrances means something, and each time she lights up the room.
But wait, there is a Jewish angle to the story. Storm in a Teacup was photographed by Mutz Greenbaum, one of the top cinematographers in Europe from the time of the early silents all the way into the 1960s. Mutz was his real name, although he often used the pseudonym, Max Greene. His father, Jules Greenbaum, was the biggest film producer in Germany before World War I, so Mutz, who started shooting films in about 1910, was already a nepo-baby.
Speaking of nepo-babies, which is extremely common in Hollywood, I saw the opposite side of it last night. This is so slight of a thought I’m surprised I’m even writing it. I watched a perfectly all right movie last night called What They Had (2018), which has a wonderful cast – Hillary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster and Blythe Danner. In several angles, particularly in a shower scene, Blythe Danner looks just like her daughter, Gweneth Paltrow. Hillary Swank does a fine job playing her daughter, but I never saw the resemblance so clearly between Blythe Danner and Gweneth Paltrow before. The film itself is the standard situation of grown adult kids having to deal with their aging parents. It’s handled perfectly fine, is entirely earnest, and has nothing new to add to the subject. But at least it wasn’t about cops or hitmen or prison.
I’m thinking of going right back to Holland.
SHANE amazes me every time I've watched. Dug the book too.