Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1991. It usually affects older people. Fox was only 30. Terrified that it would be discovered and end his career, he managed to conceal it for many years. He continued to get work and to flourish as an actor. This, even though he had to hide the uncontrollable tremor in his left hand, which he managed by keeping his hand in his pocket or using that hand to twiddle a pen. He is now 52, still young by most standards. He “came out” in 1998. His incredible story is well told in the documentary Still (2023). 

He is mainly known for two very successful TV sitcoms. In Family Ties (1982-89) he starred as Alex, the conservative straight-laced entrepreneur who is odd man out in a family of hippies. In Spin City (1990-2002) he is Mike Flaherty, NYC Deputy Mayor, who actually runs the city. 

Now for a quick look at his movie career. It really begins with the very successful Back to the Future (1985). Fox plays Marty McFly, who is accidently sent back to 1955 in Doc Brown’s (Christopher Lloyd) DeLorean. He encounters his parents and his teen-age Mom falls in love with him instead of his future Dad. From there it gets complicated. This is a really fun movie and  Fox is just right as Marty. Alas, it became the franchise that would not die, going into versions 2,3,and 4 as well as video games. Stick with the original!

In Casualties Of War (1989) Michael Fox plays Eriksson. His squad captures and rapes a Vietnamese girl. Eriksson is the only one to protest, but to no avail. This horror stays with him forever, making him truly a casualty of the war. His comrades later are tried and sent to prison. 

Fox is spot on as Doc Hollywood (1991). He portrays a newly minted physician who is on his way to California to interview for a job with a famous plastic surgeon, one who works with famous actors. It will be his dream job. On his way, he wrecks his car trying to avoid a cow in a small South Carolina town. While his Porsche is being repaired, his credentials are discovered by the town folk. They want to hire him to replace their only doctor, who is retiring. He decides to go west and take the dream job, only to find he is unhappy in that milieu. There is a wonderful happy ending I will not reveal here. 

When Fox told his high school advisor he was dropping out to pursue an acting career, the teacher told him “you won’t be cute forever”. He replied he hoped to be cute long enough. Well, he was!

Michael J. Fox can also be seen to good advantage in the original Bright Lights, Big City (1988) and he has a nice, if minor, part in The American President (1995).

All of the movies in this article, and the TV shows, are available on DVD. All are for adults. 

                                                                         Alan Arkin

                                                                            Part 3

Herewith the last article about the incredible Alan Arkin. This one contains two more Oscar nominations and his only win. He seemingly could do anything relating to show biz. He wrote the Harry Belafonte hit Banana Boat Song, the Christmas song It’s The Best Time of the Year, and many others. He recorded an album as lead singer. He won two Tony awards. He won a fistful of Emmys. And now, his final big movies:

    Jakob The Liar (1999) is pretty much Robin Williams’ movie. In the Warsaw ghetto, Jakob hears good news over a forbidden radio and spreads the news around. This goes so well he starts making up good news. Alan Arkin has a nice turn as a ghetto resident commenting on Jakob’s efforts and the Nazis’ efforts to stop him.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) is a hoot from start to finish. The Hoover family would make most dysfunctional families seem normal. Alan Arkin, the foul-mouthed grandfather who was kicked out of his retirement home for snorting heroin, almost steals the thing. And he won his only Oscar. Abigail Breslin (Olive) is superb as the kid going to California to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine contest. The whole crowd piles into their aged VW bus and hits the road. The bus stalls repeatedly and the only way to get it started is to push it til it reaches 20 mph, then jump back on. The cast includes Brain Cranston before he was famous, Steve Carrell, Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette. 

Argo (2013) won the Oscar for Best Picture. In 1979 Islamic militants storm the US embassy and take everybody in it hostage. But six personnel have evaded capture and are hiding out in the home of a friendly Canadian. A plot is hatched to convince the Iranians that the evaders are filming a Canadian sci-fi movie. Yeah, it sounds nuts, but just wait and watch. Alan Arkin plays Hollywood agent Lester Siegel. Arkin was nominated for Best Supporting Oscar but lost to Christoph Waitz for Django Unchained. Oh, and this zany story is based on a true event!

And finally, another weird true story on the screen in Million Dollar Arm (2014). Two failing American sports agents realize that Indian cricket players can really throw hard and bring the best to the US, hopefully to make the major leagues. They go from place to place to try out. They really can throw hard, but tend heavily to wildness. Their encounters with American mores are hilarious. Alan Arkin is good, of course,  as a reluctant major league scout. 

Even though Alan Arkin was featured in three Mr. Movie articles, I left out scads of other good films. All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults. 

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                                                           Alan Arkin movies

                                                                Part 2

        Here’s another bunch of good movies from the storied career of the late Alan Arkin. 

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) has an A-list cast that includes Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey and Alan Arkin. Skillfully adapted from David Mamet’s Tony-winning Broadway play, it is the story of desperate men doing desperate things. They are real estate salesmen who try to make deals from leads they are furnished. They are told that only the top two salesmen will be retained after the current period. Not many gentlemen in sight here.

Alan Arkin is the star of the hilarious The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1996). A Russian sub ventures too close to a tiny New England island and runs aground. Lt. Rozanov (Arkin) is sent with a detail of soldiers into town to try to find a boat to dislodge the sub. Their comedic encounters with the townspeople runs into more and more trouble. They rob a dry cleaner and steal the clothing, trying to “blend in”. And then a small boy’s dilemma unites them all in a peaceful solution. Arkin was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Cliff Robertson for Charly.

Arkin is the baddest of bad guys in the bite-your-nails suspenser Wait Until Dark (1997). Blind Susy (Audrey Hepburn) is beset in her apartment by three thugs looking for a doll that contains heroin. Roat (Arkin) is the worst of the bunch. He kills the other two and goes after the desperate Susy. A tip: In total darkness, the blind have an edge. This film is on Bravo’s Scarest Movie Moments list. The title is instructive...

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) is an extremely dark comedy with Dan Akroyd (Grocer) and John Cusak (Martin) as competing hit men. Alan Arkin has a good turn as the psychiatrist of the very twisted Martin.  Minnie Driver chips in as the clueless, ever hopeful, high school sweetheart Martin still has a thing for. 

Alan Arkin undergoes yet another complete change of character in the humorous Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). His role is Murray, father of a couple of renegade kids who don’t help his efforts much. He moves them from cheap apartment to cheap apartment in a comical effort to assure they can attend Beverly Hills’ superior public schools. He is an extremely unsuccessful Oldsmobile salesman during an energy crisis. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. Only The Russians Are Coming is suitable for all ages. The rest are for grown-ups. Wait Until Dark is only for those with a strong heart. And there’s just enough in the trunk for one more Arkin outing.

                                                                       Alan Arkin

                                                                    Part 1

Alan Arkin died recently at 89. He was a true Renaissance man and his movie credits are long and noteworthy. He was nominated for Oscar four times and won once.

His first important part in a significant film was in the heart-breaking The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (1968). Updated to the 60's from Carson McCullers’ great novel, it is the story of people who are damaged in various ways trying to connect and make a life. Arkin plays Singer, a deaf mute. His only friend is mentally challenged Sprios, who gets committed to an institution. Singer moves into the Kelly household to be near his friend, and tries to make friends with their teen-age daughter Mick. Arkin’s performance is just stunning. He was nominated for Oscar but lost to Cliff Robertson who won for Charly.

Alan Arkin has the starring role as Yossarian in Catch-22 (1970), adapted by Mike Nichols and Buck Henry from Joseph Heller’s dark comedy about World War II. The adaptation was a herculean task because there are so many characters and so many stories. On the whole, I think it succeeds and Arkin is in good company with Bob Balaban, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel, Bob Newhart and even Orson Welles. Catch-22 has become a modern idiom for can’t win situations. 

Little Murders (1971) is a difficult film from a difficult book by Jules Feiffer. Alan Arkin directed this film and appears in a minor role as Lieutenant Practice. It chronicles life, and death, in NYC where people try to live and seem to get dead for no apparent reason. Elliott Gould is featured as a man who apparently can’t feel pain- or pleasure. This film is not to casually dip into, but worth the trouble if you stay with it. 

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) adapted from Neil Simon’s Broadway hit, stars Alan Arkin as a stumbling middle-aged husband trying in vain to have an affair. It’s not a great play, or movie, but has some laughs and Arkin is good as a guy who just does not get it (pun intended!)

The In-Laws (1979) stars Arkin (as Shelly)  and Peter Falk (as Vince Ricardo). They are fathers of a bride and groom-to-be. The plot is the classic innocent man getting involved in shenanigans as Vince ropes the helpless Shelly into increasingly bizarre, and dangerous situations.  Shelly tries in vain to convince his daughter not to marry into this questionable family. You can find out if he was right!

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are really for grown-ups. And oh yes, there are lots more Arkin movies. Stay tuned.  

                                                                    Frankie Laine

    What? You may be thinking. Frankie Laine was a singer. Was he also in movies? Well, not as an actor. But back in the 50's and 60's if you were making a western you just had to get Frankie Laine to sing the movie’s song. And he sure could!

    One of his best songs isn’t from a movie at all, but a TV show: Rawhide (1959-65). This was a super good series about cowboys on a looooooong cattle drive and the people and problems they encounter along the way. There’s nobody much you’ve ever heard of in the cast. Oh wait, there was a rugged looking young guy named Clint Eastwood. 

    A couple of Frankie’s big western hits had nothing to do with a movie. But these are great songs! Mule Train and Ghost Riders in the Sky are still around today. Ghost Riders was also recorded by Vaughn Monroe, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, and many others. 

Starting with the classic High Noon (1952) Frankie knocked out hit after hit from Western movies.  This one stars Gary Cooper as sheriff Kane and Grace Kelly as his newly wedded bride Amy. Kane put Frank Miller in prison. He’s out now and vowing revenge and he’s coming to Kane’s town with his brothers. Kane says leaving would be cowardly. Amy says she’s a Quaker and she’s not staying. The Frankie Laine song is just perfect: “He made a vow while in state prison; vowed it would be my life or his’n. Look at that big hand move around- nearing high noon”. Oh, and Amy winds up running back to join in the fray and of course you know both Kanes make it out okay.

     Gunfight At The OK Corral (1957) is a good film a little shaky on history.  Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas)  and Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) take on the Clanton gang in this one and the song sums it up nicely. In the cast also are the legendary bad guys Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman and Jack Elam. The real gunfight is supposed to have lasted about 3 minutes but that wouldn’t make much of a movie (or song). 

3:10 To Yuma (1957) with Glenn Ford as the good guy and Van Heflin as the heavy is not in the same class, but the song is good. The film was remade in 2007 with Russel Crowe without a lot of improvement. The Hanging Tree (1959) is another so-so film with a really good Frankie Laine title song. 

    OK, this is the funniest movie I have ever seen: Blazing Saddles (1974) is Mel Brooks’ comedy gem. The governor sends a Black railroad worker accused of assault to be the Sheriff of Rock Ridge. He also has a gang of thugs sent to run the residents off, assuming the new Sheriff won’t be up to the job. Wrong. Cleavon Little plays Bart, the Sheriff. Mel Brooks himself plays the dimwitted governor, and Gene Wilder plays the new deputy. One of the many highlights is when thuggish Alex Karras literally knocks out a horse. Brooks advertised for “a Frankie Laine-type singer” and got Frankie himself to do the title song without telling him the film is a comedy. Frankie knocked it out in one take and it became another hit. 

    All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are OK for 12 and up.