Maggie Smith

                                                                Part 1

    Dame Maggie Smith left us at 89. My goodness! I have 33 good movies from this wonderful lady. This does not include TV shows or made for TV movies. Where to even start? Well, let’s start at the start, of course. You may be used to seeing her as a titled woman of advanced age, but Google her and you’ll see she was quite a dish!

For her first appearance of note we have to go back 66 years to 1958. She was  24 at the time, having already charted a brilliant stage career. Nowhere To Go is a pretty good crime story with George Nader as a resourceful thief who breaks out of jail and heads for his hidden stolen loot. Things go badly and there’s a death that sends him even more on the run. Socialite Bridget Howard (Maggie) falls hard for him and tries to help him find a way to stay free. Maggie sells Bridget, making us believe this upper class woman could act this way. 

    The Pumpkin Eater (1964) with a screenplay by Harold Pinter no less is the story of a very troubled marriage of Jake Armitrage (Peter Finch) and Jo Armitrage (Anne Bancroft). The main trouble is Jake’s numerous affairs and Jo’s seemingly endless pregnancies. Jake’s first noticeable fling is with the sultry Philpot, played winningly by Maggie Smith. Not a big part but she nails it.

Next came a juicy classical part most actresses would kill for. Maggie Smith landed the part of Desdemona, star-crossed wife of insanely jealous moor Othello (1965). This version is the filmed National Theater Company’s stage play, and stars Lawrence Olivier in the title role. There was a lot of criticism of how dark his character is portrayed. One critic compared him to Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer. Pauline Kael adored the movie and lauded Maggie’s performance as the doomed wife. This is one of many Othello films. It is perhaps the truest to Shakespeare’s play.

    Chronologically next is Maggie Smith’s first Oscar win for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). She is the title figure, a somewhat creepy teacher in a girls’ school. She tends to corral a certain group of girls into her orbit, not entirely to their benefit. “Give me a girl of an impressionable age and she is mine for life”. Yikes! This is a very difficult part and few actors would be up to it. Maggie is.

Travels With My Aunt (1972) gives us a completely different Maggie as she enchants us as the world-weary Aunt Augusta. She is involved in a complicated plot involving stolen money and a portrait of herself she swears was painted by Modigliani. Her travels take her to Turkey where her money is confiscated, but she does not give up and attempts to sell the “Modigliani” to raise the money she needs. Maggie was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to Liza Minelli for Cabaret. 

All of the films in this article are available somewhere, probably for a price. All are for grown ups. Next time: More Maggie, of course. 

                                                                  Kris Kristof

                                                                  Part 2

Kris Kristofferson continued to rack up good parts in good movies in the 1970's. Well, okay, the 1976 version of A Star Is Born is not on anybody’s all-time great list. But it’s not bad and Kris got to appear opposite Barbra Streisand and he got to use that gravelly voice. Kris plays John Norman Howard, who had been a big country star and let drugs and bad habits drag him down. He meets Esther Hoffman (Streisand) and they are together as her star rises and his continues to decline. The 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Frederic March is also just okay. You are more likely to have seen the 2018 version with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. It is the pick of this litter.

    Semi-Tough (1977) from the Dan Jenkins novel is a really funny movie about a pro football team and its stars- Shake Tiller (Kris) and Billy Clyde Puckett (Burt Reynolds). Jill Clayburgh is the love interest as Barbara Jane Bookman, pretty daughter of the team’s owner. She and Shake and Billy Clyde form a pleasing threesome that seems to somehow get along just fine. Barbara Jane starts to marry Shake, but that blows up at the altar and she winds up with Billy Clyde. The dialog is sparkling.

Convoy (1978) aimed to take advantage of the Citizen’s Band Radio fad of the time, and did pretty fair job of it. Kris plays Martin “Rubber Duck”  Penwald, one of many interesting characters in the film. Pig Pen, Widow Woman and Spider Mike are part of the crew of truckers that travel together. They are chased and harassed by Sheriff Cottonmouth Wallace (Ernest Borgnine). Duck’s love interest, Melissa (Ali MacGraw) thinks he died in an accident as the movie closes. 

Kris got a chance to star in a Michael Cimino movie, Heaven’s Gate (1980). It almost finished both of their careers. I will charitably say that it is dreadful. For one thing, most of it is so dusty you can’t tell what’s going on. But that might be a blessing. Anyway French star Isabel Huppert, Jeff Bridges, Christopher Walken, and William Dafoe all take part in the debacle. Kristofferson didn’t get another decent role for 16 years, when he played Charlie Wade in the mediocre western Lone Star.

Kris got a bit of redemption when he got to play Whistler in the Blade films (1998, 2002, 2004). If sci-fi horror is your thing, these fill the bill. I do not like or recommend them. 

Kris Kristofferson’s last appearance of note is in Where The Red Fern Grows (2003). By this time he is old and grizzled enough to play Older Billy Coleman, the main character as an old man. It’s mostly as a narrator in this somewhat sappy film. 

All of the films in this article are available somewhere if you look hard and don’t mind paying. All are for adults. 

                                                                Kris Kristofferson

                                                                      Part 1

    Kris Kristofferson, who died recently, was Texas to the core. He was a heralded country music composer and singer. In the 1970's he was a founder of the outlaw branch of country music, a rawer more authentic sound than Nashville slickness.    

But this is a movie column- and Kris had a sterling movie career as well. He burst onto the scene in Blume In Love (1973) as Elmo, the slacker boyfriend of Nina (Susan Anspach). She is divorced from Stephen Blume (George Segal) after he was unfaithful to her. Blume wanders about Venice, site of the Blumes’ honeymoon, musing about why he was such a bad husband and how much he misses Nina. He tries to reconnect with her, which starts badly. But Elmo bows out of this somewhat messy picture, true to his slacker personna, with his exit line: “It’s time to move on”. There’s a Hollywood ending without Kris.

In the same year, 1973, Kris killed the title role in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. No, he wasn’t Garret, that was James Coburn. Kris played Billy. Garrett is sent to get rid of Billy by the governor. Though he and Billy are old friends, he reluctantly takes the job. After lots of fun chases and gunfights, Billy is captured. But he escapes with a hidden pistol and shotgun loaded with “sixteen thin dimes”. He shotguns deputy sheriff Bob Olinger and yells “keep the change, Bob”. If you get to see this one, keep your eyes peeled for Bob Dylan, who wrote the music and had a small part also. Dylan’s character is named Alias. 

Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974) is a very violent western directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Warren Oates as El Jefe, a Mexican cartel chief. His daughter, Teresa, is impregnated by Alfredo Garcia, who was being groomed as the successor to El Jefe. El Jefe is infuriated by thie scenario and places a one million dollar reward on Garcia’s head. He takes off, and so does Teresa. In her wanderings she encounters a couple of outlaw bikers, one of whom is Kristofferson. Not a great part  or a great movie, but he does his best.

A better part in a better movie for Kris in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More (1974). Ellen Burstyn is Alice, whose husband is killed in an accident and who has tried to make it as singer. She decides to try again and moves with her son Tommy to the desert southwest. David (Kristofferson) is a divorced, successful local rancher who forms a on and off relationship with Alice. 

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea (1976) is in fact Kris Kristofferson as Jim Cameron, second mate of a large mechant ship. The film is from a story by Japanese author Yukio Mishima, relocated to a British coastal town. Sara Miles portrays Anne Osborne, a widow with a 14-year-old son, Jonathan.  She becomes romantically involved with Cameron and Jonathan is insanely jealous. He and his renegade friends hatch a plot to do away with Jim the next time he docks. 

All of these films are for grown-ups. All are available somewhere. Next time: Kris part 2.

                                                            Movies To TV Shows

    This week we flip the category from TV shows that were made into movies to movies that became TV shows. As you might expect, this is a hit and miss category.

I’ll start with the unquestioned king of this category. M*A*S*H (1970) was a terrific dark comedy about surgeons stationed in South Korea. It easily transitioned into an equally terrific TV show with the same name but only one holdover actor. The television series ran for eleven seasons (1972-83) and topped the charts in most years. Alan Alda (Hawkeye), Wayne Rogers (Trapper John), Loretta Swit (Hot Lips) charmed and entertained us week after week. BTW, the one holdover actor was Gary Burghoff, retained as Radar O’Reilly. 

Fargo (1996) was nominated for seven Oscars and won two. It introduced winner Frances McDormand as the pregnant police chief of a small Minnesota town. The film’s screen writers also won Oscar. The chief is investigating a kidnaping gone horribly wrong. She is underestimated by about everyone, including the bad guy. The wood-chipper is a scene you don’t readily forget. The TV show it birthed has run for ten years (2014-24) and may chalk up a sixth season. Other than the locale, it bears little resemblance to the film, but has been hugely popular. 

Friday Night Lights (2004), about a small Texas town obsessed with high school football, had moderate success. The TV series it sired was actually more popular and generally better. But the movie had the marvelous Billy Bob Thornton and the TV show did not. The TV show ran for five seasons, ending in 2011. The series dived into more contemporary issues. It was nearly cancelled several times but its fans kept saving it. 

    Westworld (1973) is a sci-fi western with the improbably cast Yul Brynner as an android dressed up like a gunslinging cowboy. People can pay to enter Westworld and play at cowboys and cowboys. Then things go terribly wrong. What a surprise! The TV show ran for three seasons, ending in 2020. The stories feature the same locale, which gets a little repetitive. It does have more A-list actors: Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, Evan Rachel Wood, etc. Somehow,  there is still talk of another season. 

Fame (1980) is a reasonably good film about young talents trying to make it big in show biz via the NY High School of Performing Arts. . Irene Cara was the star and quite a good one. The movie was well-liked though Cara didn’t break out after it. The TV series ran for six seasons and was much loved by young people. The stories are uneven but generally good quality.

Two I don’t have room for: Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and About A Boy. 

All of the movies and TV series in this article are available for streaming somewhere, if you look hard and are willing to pay. All are for grown-ups.