MAUREEN O’HARA
She was an Irish beauty with fiery red hair, proud of her heritage. Maureen O’Hara lived to the good old age of 90. Her filmology is rich and diverse.
Later dubbed the “Queen Of Technicolor,” her first starring role was in a black and white movie. Her first screen test was called unsatisfactory but Charles Laughton saw something about her that made him go to bat for her with studio execs. She then landed the plum part of Esmerelda in the 1939 version of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. Mr. Laughton is the title hunchback. This is by far the best version of the Victor Hugo masterpiece.
Rio Grande (1950) is the third leg of John Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy and stars Ms. O’Hara as Kathleen Yorke and John Wayne as her husband, Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke. He is joined by their son Jeff (Claude Jarman, Jr.), who has flunked out of West Point. Ms. O’Hara shows up to take Jeff back home, but he refuses to go. This being Hollywood, the dormant flame between the Yorkes is reignited and all ends well. Oh yes, there are plenty of Indian attacks and chances for heroics. Ms. O’Hara made fives westerns with Mr. Wayne. This is the best one.
Maureen O’Hara wanted to branch out, feeling that she had been pidgenholed as “The Pretty Woman.” She was delighted to be cast in The Quiet Man (1952), set and shot in Ireland, her ancestral home. This very different film is directed by John Ford and stars John Wayne as American Sean Thornton. He and Ms. O’Hara (Mary Kate Danaher) have a stormy Irish marriage, with conflicts over Irish traditions scorned by Sean but revered by the Danahers. The movie features one of the longest, and funniest, fistfights ever filmed between Mr. Wayne and Victor McLaglen (Will Danaher, Mary Kate’s brother). And speaking of fights, Ms. O’Hara broke her hand taking a poke at Mr. Wayne during the filming! Well, the plot is a lot more complicated than that, but that’s enough to get the idea.
At Sword’s Point (1952) is not exactly the stuff that cinema legends are made of, but it is notable for Maureen O’Hara’s virtuoso fencing scenes. She had insisted on doing her own stunts, and studied fencing for six weeks before filming started. So that isn’t a stunt double skewering those bad guys!
Maureen O’Hara is splendid as Angharad in the classic Welsh mining movie, How Green Was My Valley (1941). It also features Roddy McDowell, Walter Pigeon, Anna Lee and Donald Crisp. It won five Oscars, including Best Movie. The bad news: it is in black and white, so no flaming red O’Hara mane. The good news: it is one gorgeous black and white movie!
Ms. O’Hara is the title lady in Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955) sort of a Hollywood potboiler. And guys- don’t get your hopes up. Ms. O’Hara is always well covered up!
Maureen O’Hara can also be seen to great effect in A Bill Of Divorcement (1940), Miracle On 34th Street (1947), The Foxes Of Harrow (1947) and Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation (1962) with Maureen as Mrs. Hobbs and James Stewart as her husband.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for all ages.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
BASKETBALL
The slight chill in the air means one thing to most folks around here: Basketball- serious hoops! So how has the silver screen treated our roundball passion? There are at least 50 movies that deal with basketball in one way or another, and most aren’t very good. Trust Mr. Movie to find the gold among the dross.
Black And White (2000) is partly about basketball and partly about white kids’ infatuation with black culture. The basketball parts are pretty good. The NBA’s Allen Houston is rather good as a hoopster. Finding Forrester (2000) is a better film, and the basketball part of it is also well done. Rob Brown is a ghetto kid recruited for the upscale white prep school because he can play. Sean Connery is a reclusive one-book author who becomes the kid’s mentor. Most instructive as to how people get used and how assumptions can be way wrong.
Perhaps the best basketball film ever made is the stunning documentary Hoop Dreams (1994), the true story of two black kids from the Chicago slums who dream of making it out via the basketball court. The distractions and hurdles they face along the way are more than most of us could bear, and the basketball is the real stuff. As with most fine films, Hoop Dreams turns out to be more about life than its presumptive subject, basketball.
Hoosiers (1986) yanks our heartstrings with both hands as a small Indiana high school improbably goes for the State Championship. Gene Hackman is superb, as always, as the coach. Dennis Hopper has a nice turn as an alcoholic basketball junkie
who still knows more about the game when drunk than most people who are sober. Not liking Hoosiers would be at least mildly un-American.
From tears to laughter in one fell swoop, check out White Men Can’t Jump (1992) with Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes as improbable basketball hustlers. Rosie Perez is excellent as Mr. Harrelson’s girlfriend, who is tired of his basketball obsession, and whose lifetime goal is to get on Jeopardy. The two guys are able to hustle people by playing on their assumptions, and by dogging it until it counts.
Coach Carter (2005) stars Samuel L. Jackson in a true story of a basketball coach who benched his undefeated starting line-up because of poor academics. This didn’t go over with almost anyone, but he stuck to his guns with pretty amazing results.
He Got Game (1998) is a Spike Lee story in which convict Denzel Washington is let out of jail so he talk his estranged son, a basketball superstar (Ray Allen, an NBA player), into attending the governor’s alma mater. If you can buy that premise, you might like it. The basketball is well done.
All of the films in this column are available on DVD and for streaming. All are suitable for 10 and up.
The slight chill in the air means one thing to most folks around here: Basketball- serious hoops! So how has the silver screen treated our roundball passion? There are at least 50 movies that deal with basketball in one way or another, and most aren’t very good. Trust Mr. Movie to find the gold among the dross.
Black And White (2000) is partly about basketball and partly about white kids’ infatuation with black culture. The basketball parts are pretty good. The NBA’s Allen Houston is rather good as a hoopster. Finding Forrester (2000) is a better film, and the basketball part of it is also well done. Rob Brown is a ghetto kid recruited for the upscale white prep school because he can play. Sean Connery is a reclusive one-book author who becomes the kid’s mentor. Most instructive as to how people get used and how assumptions can be way wrong.
Perhaps the best basketball film ever made is the stunning documentary Hoop Dreams (1994), the true story of two black kids from the Chicago slums who dream of making it out via the basketball court. The distractions and hurdles they face along the way are more than most of us could bear, and the basketball is the real stuff. As with most fine films, Hoop Dreams turns out to be more about life than its presumptive subject, basketball.
Hoosiers (1986) yanks our heartstrings with both hands as a small Indiana high school improbably goes for the State Championship. Gene Hackman is superb, as always, as the coach. Dennis Hopper has a nice turn as an alcoholic basketball junkie
who still knows more about the game when drunk than most people who are sober. Not liking Hoosiers would be at least mildly un-American.
From tears to laughter in one fell swoop, check out White Men Can’t Jump (1992) with Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes as improbable basketball hustlers. Rosie Perez is excellent as Mr. Harrelson’s girlfriend, who is tired of his basketball obsession, and whose lifetime goal is to get on Jeopardy. The two guys are able to hustle people by playing on their assumptions, and by dogging it until it counts.
Coach Carter (2005) stars Samuel L. Jackson in a true story of a basketball coach who benched his undefeated starting line-up because of poor academics. This didn’t go over with almost anyone, but he stuck to his guns with pretty amazing results.
He Got Game (1998) is a Spike Lee story in which convict Denzel Washington is let out of jail so he talk his estranged son, a basketball superstar (Ray Allen, an NBA player), into attending the governor’s alma mater. If you can buy that premise, you might like it. The basketball is well done.
All of the films in this column are available on DVD and for streaming. All are suitable for 10 and up.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
BAD GUYS GONE GOOD
Here is the flip side of a recent article about actors who generally played good guy parts suddenly showing up as villains. This column is the opposite- it’s about actors who were almost always bad guys and who suddenly appear as nice men. And yeah, it’s kinda short because I couldn’t think of any more!
Ernest Borgnine just looks like a bad guy, and for years he was one. He was especially hateful as the murderous Fatso in From Here To Eternity. But then in 1955 he broke our hearts as Marty, unlikely hero of a very quiet little jewel of a film. His phone call to Betsy Blair and his comments about her to a buddy are just simply wonderful. He won the Oscar, as did director Delbert Mann, screenwriter Paddy Chayfesky and the film itself won Best Movie.
Vincent Price made quite a career as countless villains in countless horror movies. He diced and sliced many a fair maiden and his appearance alone generated hisses from the audience. But in 1987 he is the nicest of guys in The Whales Of August. He is Mr. Maranov, who befriends Lillian Gish and Bette Davis, movie icons, as sisters on holiday in Maine.
James Cagney’s career consisted mainly of playing a hateful thug in lots of movies about gangsters. His most famous scene involved shoving a grapefruit into the face of his wife in White Heat (1949). So- who to get to play George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)? Why Cagney, of course! And he is just superb as the legendary song and dance man, doing his own singing and dancing.
Jack Elam was probably in more westerns than John Wayne, and in almost all of them was a villain. But he is just right as the sidekick for good guy James Garner in both Support Your Local Sheriff (1969) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971). Elam is the really laid-back sheriff’s excitable deputy and perfectly sets the stage for Garner’s easy-going portrayal.
All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are okay for any age.
Here is the flip side of a recent article about actors who generally played good guy parts suddenly showing up as villains. This column is the opposite- it’s about actors who were almost always bad guys and who suddenly appear as nice men. And yeah, it’s kinda short because I couldn’t think of any more!
Ernest Borgnine just looks like a bad guy, and for years he was one. He was especially hateful as the murderous Fatso in From Here To Eternity. But then in 1955 he broke our hearts as Marty, unlikely hero of a very quiet little jewel of a film. His phone call to Betsy Blair and his comments about her to a buddy are just simply wonderful. He won the Oscar, as did director Delbert Mann, screenwriter Paddy Chayfesky and the film itself won Best Movie.
Vincent Price made quite a career as countless villains in countless horror movies. He diced and sliced many a fair maiden and his appearance alone generated hisses from the audience. But in 1987 he is the nicest of guys in The Whales Of August. He is Mr. Maranov, who befriends Lillian Gish and Bette Davis, movie icons, as sisters on holiday in Maine.
James Cagney’s career consisted mainly of playing a hateful thug in lots of movies about gangsters. His most famous scene involved shoving a grapefruit into the face of his wife in White Heat (1949). So- who to get to play George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)? Why Cagney, of course! And he is just superb as the legendary song and dance man, doing his own singing and dancing.
Jack Elam was probably in more westerns than John Wayne, and in almost all of them was a villain. But he is just right as the sidekick for good guy James Garner in both Support Your Local Sheriff (1969) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971). Elam is the really laid-back sheriff’s excitable deputy and perfectly sets the stage for Garner’s easy-going portrayal.
All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are okay for any age.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
JOAN LESLIE
She wasn’t exactly a household word. In fact, even Mr. Movie had never heard of her and had to look her up. But Joan Leslie, who died recently at 90, had an incredible movie career, and a good life to boot. She starred in three classics and appeared in two more quality films. After a blazing start, she just dropped out of show biz altogether for about 10 years. She raised her two daughters, both of whom are physicians on university faculties. And she was married to the same man for 50 years, the union ending only with his death. Wow! A life well-lived indeed. Her career started in 1936, but didn’t really take off until
High Sierra (1941). In this early John Huston classic, Humphrey Bogart plays a hard-nosed con (Roy Earle) just released from prison and in on a new heist. On the way, he meets Velma (Joan Leslie) who suffers from a deformed foot. He sympathizes with her plight and pays for corrective surgery. Though immensely grateful, she turns down his marriage proposal to return to her hometown sweetheart. Roy Earle continues on to the planned robbery, which goes terribly wrong. Unhappy endings were not the usual material of Hollywood in those days (although bad guys ending up badly was formula stuff).
In Sergeant York (1941) Gary Cooper plays the title character. We see him at first as a hard-drinking hard-fighting hillbilly, but his life is changed on meeting Gracie Williams, ably portrayed by Joan Leslie. He goes on to become one of the most famous soldiers of World War I, a decorated hero. Mr. Cooper won an Oscar for his performance, and the movie was nominated for five more statues.
Next up for Ms. Leslie was the incredibly entertaining Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). It features James Cagney (yes, him!) as legendary song and dance man George M. Cohan. Joan Leslie plays Mary, his lovely wife, dancing partner and co-star.
The film was nominated for nine Oscars and won four, including Mr. Cagney as Best Actor.
Joan Leslie as a dancer was no fluke. Her next movie involved dancing with the Grand Master: Fred Astaire! The Sky’s The Limit (1942) may not be Astaire’s best, but it’s still Astaire, There are the usual number of great dance numbers, all of which were choreographed by Astaire himself. And Ms. Leslie leads him a merry chase that of course ends happily. And- she holds her own dancing with a legend.
Finally, the rather hokey but nonetheless entertaining Rhapsody In Blue (1945), a somewhat iffy biopic about George Gershwin. Joan Leslie plays Julie Adams, a Gershwin sweetheart, one of many fictional characters in the film. The music is great!
After that, Joan Leslie drops out of sight for many years and never really hits it big again. All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for all ages.
She wasn’t exactly a household word. In fact, even Mr. Movie had never heard of her and had to look her up. But Joan Leslie, who died recently at 90, had an incredible movie career, and a good life to boot. She starred in three classics and appeared in two more quality films. After a blazing start, she just dropped out of show biz altogether for about 10 years. She raised her two daughters, both of whom are physicians on university faculties. And she was married to the same man for 50 years, the union ending only with his death. Wow! A life well-lived indeed. Her career started in 1936, but didn’t really take off until
High Sierra (1941). In this early John Huston classic, Humphrey Bogart plays a hard-nosed con (Roy Earle) just released from prison and in on a new heist. On the way, he meets Velma (Joan Leslie) who suffers from a deformed foot. He sympathizes with her plight and pays for corrective surgery. Though immensely grateful, she turns down his marriage proposal to return to her hometown sweetheart. Roy Earle continues on to the planned robbery, which goes terribly wrong. Unhappy endings were not the usual material of Hollywood in those days (although bad guys ending up badly was formula stuff).
In Sergeant York (1941) Gary Cooper plays the title character. We see him at first as a hard-drinking hard-fighting hillbilly, but his life is changed on meeting Gracie Williams, ably portrayed by Joan Leslie. He goes on to become one of the most famous soldiers of World War I, a decorated hero. Mr. Cooper won an Oscar for his performance, and the movie was nominated for five more statues.
Next up for Ms. Leslie was the incredibly entertaining Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). It features James Cagney (yes, him!) as legendary song and dance man George M. Cohan. Joan Leslie plays Mary, his lovely wife, dancing partner and co-star.
The film was nominated for nine Oscars and won four, including Mr. Cagney as Best Actor.
Joan Leslie as a dancer was no fluke. Her next movie involved dancing with the Grand Master: Fred Astaire! The Sky’s The Limit (1942) may not be Astaire’s best, but it’s still Astaire, There are the usual number of great dance numbers, all of which were choreographed by Astaire himself. And Ms. Leslie leads him a merry chase that of course ends happily. And- she holds her own dancing with a legend.
Finally, the rather hokey but nonetheless entertaining Rhapsody In Blue (1945), a somewhat iffy biopic about George Gershwin. Joan Leslie plays Julie Adams, a Gershwin sweetheart, one of many fictional characters in the film. The music is great!
After that, Joan Leslie drops out of sight for many years and never really hits it big again. All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for all ages.
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