2018 Sleepers
                                                    Part 4

Here’s another generous helping of 2018 movies that didn’t get much attention, but which I think were pretty good.
What They Had is an excellent portrayal of the family situation so many face. The family’s matriarch is fading into dementia. The kids want her to be in a caring facility.  The father is dead set against it, insisting he can take care of her. Such stubborn insistence has been faced by many children. But she is the love of his life and he just can’t let go. Blythe Danner, Hillary Swank, Michael Shannon and Robert Forster comprise a crackerjack cast. 
In the early years of talkies, no one was bigger than Laurel and Hardy. Audiences loved the pair, and the signature line, “This is a fine mess you’ve got us into,” was known throughout the world. Stan and Ollie is a very good bio pic about the last years of their partnership. Having been ousted by the Hollywood studios, they attempt a music hall tour of Britain with mixed results. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are spot on as the comedic pair. Several of their famous gags are shown to good effect. 
One of the most famous sports confrontations in history is portrayed quite well in Borg vs. McEnroe. Sverrir Gudnason portrays his fellow Swede Bjorn Borg while Shia LaBeouf plays the famous American brat, John McEnroe. Most even casual tennis fans recall McEnroe’s signature comment to any questionable call: “Seriously?” These two could not be more different. Borg is the silent introvert, McEnroe the Type A opposite. The film leads up to their famous confrontation at the 1980 Wimbledon singles championship. It’s worth watching for the tennis alone, and the accompanying stories are also quite good. 
Alpha is a convincing depiction of how wolves became domesticated friends, and eventually evolved into dogs. The story takes place in paleolithic Europe some 20,000 years ago. A young warrior, Keda, falls over a cliff and is presumed dead by his tribe. He encounters and helps a wounded wolf and together they try to make their way back to Keda’s tribe. The depiction of prehistoric animals and scenery is spectacular.
American Animals is the true story of how some college students attempted to steal several valuable books from Transylvania University’s rare book collection. The movie shifts back and forth between the actual thieves and the actors playing the thieves in the movie. The actors are all unknowns which adds to the authenticity of the story.  The ending is not one you’d expect and you won’t find it here!
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups. 

                                                            DORIS DAY

A perky, bubbly blonde who was the perfect Girl Next Door to millions, Doris Day lived to the good old age of 97. She had a splendid singing voice, and her hits like Que Sera Sera are still heard frequently. Her sterling film career was just about equally divided between romantic comedies and darker dramas. 
Many of the romantic comedies paired her with the handsome Rock Hudson. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Jan Morrow in Pillow Talk (1959). Day plays an interior designer who shares a party line with lothario Hudson. She complains about his phone use, he decides to meet her without revealing his identity and of course romance blossoms. Until mutual friend Tony Randall spills the beans. The movie received six Oscar nominations, and won for Best Original Screen Play. Day was nominated for Best Actress but lost to Simone Signoret for Room At The Top.
Day, Hudson and Randall teamed up in two more romantic comedies: Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). These are pleasant entertainment but not especially memorable.
Day’s first appearance of note was opposite Kirk Douglas in the biopic Young Man With A Horn (1950), based loosely on the life of musician Bix Beiderbecke.
Douglas plays cornetist Rick Martin who works his way up to the big bands and a doomed marriage to a bad girl (Lauren Bacall). Day is the band’s soloist and stands by Rick when his drinking lands him in a rehab facility. A happy ending, typical for the time, is tacked on, one not even close to the true story. 
Doris Day’s only appearance in an Alfred Hitchcock movie is as Jo McKenna
 in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Jimmy Stewart plays her husband, Dr. Ben McKenna. They are vacationing with their young son in Morocco when everything breaks loose. The plot is too complicated to summarize here, but I will say that this film contains a famous scene where a murder is supposed to take place at a concert. The gunshot is to be covered by a cymbals crash. The tension builds.
She gets a chance to use that marvelous voice in The Pajama Game (1957), a musical comedy spawned by a Broadway play. It is about a pajama factory in Iowa. Day plays Babe, one of the workers and a union leader. The story is a little dated, but there are really good songs like Hernando’s Hideaway and Hey There.
A complete change of pace for Doris Day is in the thriller Midnight Lace (1960). She plays Kit Preston, terrified of a stalker who threatens her constantly and from several directions.  It also features Rex Harrison and John Gavin, and has a surprise ending I don’t think you’ll see coming. 
I’ve really only hit the high spots of Doris Day’s film career. You might want to check out Calamity Jane (1953) or April In Paris (1952). Oh, and Day had a very successful TV show for five years (1968-73).
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. They are fine for all audiences. 

                                                            FILM NOIR
So what is “film noir” anyway? Well, it’s French for “dark film”. Think L.A. Confidential (1997) or Chinatown (1974), two excellent fairly recent examples of film noir: World-weary heros, underworld types, very bad girls with hearts of lead, lots of smoky atmosphere. To paraphrase Justice Stewart on pornography, you’ll know a film noir  when you see one (and when you do see one you’ll have a good time!)
Hollywood keeps trying out variations on the film noir formula, often with good success. But the classic film noir movies were made from 1937-1950. The most famous, and one of the best, is The Maltese Falcon (1941). With Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, a private eye who’s been around the block too many times, Mary Astor as his glamorous employer, and Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre as very bad guys, this is a superb cast. The ambivalent ending is just right, the stuff that dreams are made of.
This Gun For Hire (1942) features Alan Ladd as a small time thug bent on revenge, and made him a star. Veronica Lake is the quintessential film noir bad girl and Robert Preston (The Music Man himself) shows what he can do as the bad guy. The story keeps your interest, but it’s the characters that really shine.
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are an unbeatable combination and practically set the screen on fire in The Big Sleep (1946). From a Raymond Chandler story with a screenplay by no less than William Faulkner (among others) the dialogue is just marvelous. The plot is so convoluted no one can figure out who did what to whom, but then it’s so much fun that nobody cares.
Robert Mitchum was probably the definitive film noir leading man. Those hooded eyes and that whiskey voice are put to great use in Out Of The Past (1947). Mitchum finds he cannot escape his thuggish history and becomes involved with mobster Kirk Douglas and bad girls Rhonda Fleming and Jane Greer in very criminal matters. 
In Force of Evil (1948) the much underrated John Garfield is superb as a criminal lawyer for the mob, whose morals have gone over the hill. Marie Windsor (My Friend Irma!) is the girl. Beautifully photographed in black and white; not to be missed.
Perhaps the last entry from the classic age of films noir is Touch Of Evil (1948).
It was directed by and starred Orson Welles, who absolutely exudes evil as a corrupt cop. Charlton Heston (with a moustache!) and Janet Leigh add to the cast of a film that is as dark as they get. 
Other good examples of film noir: Criss Cross (1949), Crossfire (1947), In A Lonely Place (1950), and They Live By Night (1949). All of the movies in this article are available on DVD.  All are for those 12 and up. 

                                                  WHO ARE THOSE GUYS?
The title on this post is stolen fair and square from Butch Cassidy, spoken about the posse that just keeps coming. This post is about who those guys in the movie credits are. This topic was suggested by one of my fans, and I appreciate and now act on that suggestion! I’m going to skip some fairly obvious ones, like Caterer and Accountant. But some of the less obvious titles follow.
Director- the main guy who tells everyone what to do and when. Think Cecil B. DeMille or Martin Scorcese. 
Assistant Director- a title that covers a multitude of jobs, some big, some not. A lot of big-time directors started this way. These guys are assigned tasks during shooting, ranging from fetching coffee to directing scenes.
Producer- Think money! Want to get your name on the credits as a producer? Just write a big check. 
Executive Producer- Probably wrote the biggest check. Also may be the person who came up with the idea and pitched it to the studios. Often it will be the biggest star in the movie, who has always wanted to do this movie and now has enough money and clout to get it done.
Second Unit- Not exactly the same as second team in sports. When movies are shot in more than one place, eg. Hollywood and Mexico, the second unit folks take over the second spot. All titles apply, they just don’t get paid as much.
Gaffer- I love this one! He (or she) is the head electrician on a set. He supervises all the lighting and often designs it. The term comes from the early days of the movies and referred to the guy who moved the overhead equipment to control the lighting, called a gaff.
Best Boy- Another popular favorite. Assistant to the gaffer (see above) or the grip (see below). The best boy is often a girl, sometimes called such, sometimes not. 
Key Grip- The person in charge of all the equipment including cameras. Reports to the director of photography. 
Tutors- Actually, just what you think. All the child actors and children of production members on the set still have to go to school. And these folks teach them.
Stunt Director- Decides when stunts are needed, and hires the folks to do them. Most big name actors don’t do their own stunts- stunt men or women who look enough like the big guys to get by are hired.  By the way, Tom Cruise famously does his own stunts!
Loader- Physically loads the film into the camera. Or the CD. Nowadays, the majority of movies are shot in digital format, not film. But many directors still prefer film.
SFX- Special effects. Anything from parting the Red Sea to avatars. Indispensable to today’s big action films. These days done almost entirely by computer.
Rigger- in charge of ropes, cables, wires, scaffolding, etc., when needed for a scene. In the theater in charge of “flying” actors (eg. Peter Pan) but no longer needed as such for films.
Casting- In coordination with producers and directors, decides what actors to hire for what purposes, and contracts with them and their agents. When this appears in the end credits the cast member list usually follows.
Production Companies- Won’t usually be in the credits, but at the first of a movie. 
They supply the bucks and sometimes the people. Think Working Title, Canal, Dreamworks, Pixar.
This article is suitable for all audiences who can read.