Better Than The Book

    This is a very limited category. Because probably 90% or more of the time, the movie is not as good as the book. But Mr. Movie has dug out a few good movies that topped the book on which they were based.

Forest Gump (1994) deservedly won everything in sight at the Oscars. Winston Groom’s novel is ok, but the movie just towers over it. Credit Tom Hanks, as Forest, for a major chunk of credit. And Sally Field (as his Mom) and Gary Sinise (as his best buddy) also deserve praise. Forest is perhaps mildly retarded or, well, maybe just a tad slow. He is a football player, a soldier, a boyfriend, a good son, and much more. Everyone loved Forest Gump! “Life is like a box of chocolates”.

Julie and Julia (2009) is based on Julie Powell’s excellent book of the same name. But put Meryl Streep (as Julia Child) and Amy Adams (as Julie Powell) on the screen and it’s solid gold. Julie Powell is a young New Yorker living in a small apartment who sets out to cook every recipe in Child’s Mastering The Art Of French Cooking on her tiny stove. And do this in one year. This story is masterfully intermingled with Child’s adventures in France and America and her rise to fame (and fortune). 

The Graduate (1967) is based on Charles Webb’s fine novel. Dustin Hoffman (Benjamin Braddock) and Anne Bancroft (as the feral seductress Mrs. Robinson) elevate this story to a whole new level. Ben just graduated from college and is floundering around at his parents’ house, trying to decide what to do with the rest of his life. He runs into the extremely hot (and very available) Mrs. Robinson, but falls in love with her lovely daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross). And from this tangled mess emerges a wedding you won’t soon forget! 

Psycho (1960) is the greatest horror film ever made. Based on Robert Bloch’s novel (just ok), it is absolutely nail-biting terror. Bates Motel is the site of the story. It is run by Norman Bates, who idolizes his mother. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stops at the Bates Motel to get out of a driving rain storm. She then takes the worst shower in all of movie history. This is Alfred Hitchcock at the absolute top of his game. The ending will knock your socks into next week!

Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) is an excellent novel. However, for my money, the movie is better. Audrey Hepburn just glows as the delightfully named Holly Golightly, a naive ingenue turned loose on an unsuspecting New York. George Peppard is quite good as her baffled boyfriend. An excellent supporting cast is bouoyed by Mickey Rooney, Patricia Neal, Martin Balsam and Buddy Ebsen. The surprise ending is just that. 

Other candidates for the “better than the book” category include Arrival (2016) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Perhaps you have some candidates. I would like to know!

                                                              M. Emmett Walsh

Roger Ebert called him “The Poet of Sleaze”. When Emmett Walsh appeared on the scene, usually something dreadful was about to happen to someone. Not exactly a matinee idol, but that rubbery face could do lots of tricks. He appeared in over 250 movies and TV shows. He never seemed to find a role he didn’t like or couldn’t play. He went to that great casting call in the sky at 88 last March. Mr. Movie now attempts to dig out the best of Mr.Walsh.

    One of my favorite Walsh roles is in the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple (1984). Walsh is wonderfully crooked as private detective Loren Visser. The plot twists and turns around bar owner Marty, his unfaithful wife Abby and his double-crossing bartender Ray. Visser manages to keep everyone at each other’s throats with doctored pictures and the burial alive of poor Marty. His attempt to kill Abby is thwarted by her as she nails him with a knife and them shoots him through a bathroom door. Thinking he is the now dead Marty, she yells to Visser she is not afraid of Marty. Visser responds. “Well, if I see him ma’am, I’ll sure give him the message”.

In Straight Time (1978) Dustin Hoffman plays recently paroled thief Max Dembo. He wants to go straight, start a new life. Unfortunately, his parole officer is the extremely sleazy Earl Frank (Walsh). Frank is determined to send Max back to prison by fair means or foul and eventually forces the issue to the point that Max returns to a life of crime. 

Al Pacino is Serpico (1973), an honest NYPD cop who wants to reveal the corruption in the police force. Foiled by his superiors, including Chief Gallagher (the always dependendably crooked Walsh), he goes to the New York Times. That does the trick, but endangers the career and the life of Serpico. 

Steve Martin plays Navin Johnson, The Jerk (1979). He is the white adopted son of poor black sharecroppers (just go with it!). He can’t understand why he has no rhythm and why everything he tries goes wrong. A madman (Emmett Walsh) picks Navin’s name out a phone book and decides to kill him. Luckily, the movie proceeds apace. The transformed madman later helps Navin. Or maybe not.

Water is the coin of the realm in The Milagro Beanfield War (1980). A crooked developer seeks to build a massive resort colony in New Mexico which will completely deplete the water needed to irrigate the crops in the area. There’s lots of dirty doings and bribery, both open and clandestine. The whole thing is brought to a halt by the Governor (Emmett Walsh), restoring the water to the farmers. Well, he couldn’t always be the bad guy!

Interesting snippets of Walsh can be found in Brubaker (1980), Silkwood (1983), and most recently in Knives Out (2019).

All of the movies in this article are available somewhere. All are for grown-ups

                                                       Louis Gossett, Jr.

                                                             Part 2

    One column was not enough to sum up the stellar career of Louis Gossett, Jr. Here are five more movies that included Gossett as an important cast member. There are well over 200 movies and TV shows not included here. 

The Deep (1977) is based on Peter Benchley’s novel of the same name. It’s a harrowing adventure story of a lost Spanish galleon, millions of dollars worth of ampules containing morphine, and the effort to recover the treasure. Louis Gossett is on board as Henri Cloche, a despicable drug kingpin. You’ll hate him! Robert Shaw, Yvette Mimeux, Eli Wallach and Nick Nolte complete the cast. There seems to be a World War 1 wreck sitting atop a 16th century Spanish ship. The top one contains the morphine. The Spaniard contains gold and silver. Oh, and Cloche may not make it to the credits.

Swallow your incredulity before attempting Enemy Mine (1985), a sci-fi thriller. Dennis Quaid is a human fighter pilot. Louis Gossett is Jareeba, a Drac reptilian humanoid with about 50 pounds of make-up. They hate each other, then get over it when they both crash on an unhospitable planet. Dracs self-fertilize so Jareeba has a child. I guess you can make this stuff up- somebody did! Anyway, Gossett is quite convincing in a somewhat off the charts role.

In Diggstown (1992) Louis Gossett is Honey Roy Palmer, the only good guy in the film. He is a boxer who is slated to knock out ten men in one day. Yep. James Woods, Bruce Dern and Oliver Platt are perfect villains. Why Palmer would participate in this stupid wager is never quite explained. But Gossett makes a cool boxer! He was, in fact, quite an athlete. He was drafted by the New York Knicks but forewent athletics for acting. 

The 2023 musical version of The Color Purple received glowing critical and audience reviews and deserves them. The same characters that peopled the 1985 version are portrayed by actors who can sing, including Taraji Henson and our own Fantasia Barrino. Loouis Gosset plays Old Mister Johnson, not a major factor. Albert Johnson, also called Mister, is the bad guy whom Celie is forced to marry. His somewhat despicable character is allowed to be redeemed in this outing. 

Gossett has a small but pithy part in The Perfect Game (2009) the “based on a true story” sports movie about a ragtag Little League baseball team from Mexico who somehow wins the LL World Series via a perfectly pitched game. Cool Papa Bell was a legendary player in the Negro Leagues and Gossett does him full justice. No surprise.

All of the movies in this article are available somewhere. All are for adults. 

                                                             Louis Gossett, Jr.

                                                           Part One

    Louis Gossett, Jr. left us recently at 85. The guy was everywhere. He had over 200 acting credits and had 12 projects going when he died. But like Louise Fletcher or Mary Badham, he had one shining performance that defined his talent. The difference is that he had many other important roles. 

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) is the place of that peak performance. Gossett won the Best Supporting Oscar as Sgt. Emil Foley, the Drill Instructor from Hell. Zack Mayo (Richard Gere)  is the focus of Foley’s determination. Mayo is caught selling contraband goods to other officer candidates and Foley decides he has to go.  His aim is to break Mayo and cure him forever of his arrogance and flippancy. Mayo turns out to be tougher than anyone (including him) thought. He perseveres through this trial and others and winds up thanking Foley for being tough on him and for not giving up on him.

Gossett’s first appearance of note is in Loraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1961), He appears as George Murchison, the Younger family’s daughter’s boyfriend. She dumps him because of his views on racism. Don’t blink or you’ll miss him. 

His true break-out role was in Skin Game (1971). Though Jason was born a free man and still is, he and Quincy O’Rourke (James Garner) travel the country as owner and slave. Quincy continuously “sells” Jason to willing bidders. Then he and Jason split the profits and move on. There is, of course, a catch. It’s when a very savvy old slave trader realizes what they’re up to, and buys Jason, intending to take him south and make a profit. 

In Travels With My Aunt (1972) Louis Gossett has a ball playing Zachary Wordsworth, an African fortune teller. The aunt of the title is the legendary Maggie Smith. She may or may not be the legitimate aunt, and her message to her “nephew” that the woman he thinks was his mother is not, is deeply suspicious. This hectic film winds up in a fishing boat off the African coast piloted by none other than Wordsworth. A coin flip to decide the final outcome is freeze-framed as the major players watch after Wordsworth flips it into the air. 

Roots (1977) is not actually a movie. It is a TV mini-series based upon Alex Haley’s historical book about the life of Kunta Kinte, an ancestor of the author. The series was a sensation and at one time garnered the most viewers of any program on TV. Kunta is sold into slavery by African turncoats and lands in Colonial Virginia as a plantation slave. Louis Gossett portrays Fiddler, an elderly slave who mentors Kunta and tries to soften his now-tragic life change. Both are sold to another slave owner, and Fiddler continues to help Kunta until Fiddler’s death of natural causes. This is fairly early in the series, which continues on for many years.

All of the movies in this article are available (perhaps for a price). All are for adults. And I am not done with Mr. Gossett

                                                                          GARY COOPER

He wasn’t really an actor in the same sense as Dustin Hoffman or Meryl Streep. He didn’t disappear into roles; he always played himself, much like John Wayne or Sylvester Stallone. He was often horribly miscast (see for example Love in the Afternoon (1957) or The Fountainhead (1949). In his prime he still belonged to the studio system and so he did what he was told. But in the right part Gary Cooper was splendid. And at his best, he almost seemed to symbolize the American hero. It’s hard to pick the best from over 50 movies, but here goes.

There is no better place to start than High Noon (1952). Gary Cooper is the retiring sheriff of a small western town. On his wedding day (and last day on the job) he learns a killer he put away is coming for revenge. Nobody will stand with him or even help him (including Grace Kelly, in a somewhat less than heroic turn). He could run; he could hide- but it is his duty to stay and fight. His steely determination coupled with a winning humanity marks his best role. He deserved, and won, the Oscar.

Lou Gehrig was certainly an American hero. Not just anyone could pull off that “today I think I’m the luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech that a dying Gehrig spoke in Yankee stadium, but Gary Cooper does it. The baseball parts of Pride of the Yankees (1942) aren’t really that great, but the people part is unmatched as a sports biography. Teresa Wright is quite good as Eleanor Gehrig, and Babe Ruth is pretty good as himself.

Gary Cooper is the father of a Quaker family in Friendly Persuasion (1956), conflicted by his non-violent faith amid the American Civil War. Dorothy McGuire, Marjorie Main and Anthony Perkins ably assist as members of the family, but it is Cooper’s character that epitomizes the dilemma still being faced by many. 

For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943) is the best Ernest Hemingway film adaptation and Gary Cooper carries it on his back as an American fighting with a bunch of ragtag Spanish rebels in their civil war. That the combatants include Ingrid Bergman is a lucky break, as her love affair with Cooper has enough chemistry to stock a good-size laboratory. 

Some other good Gary Cooper vehicles include Ball of Fire (1941), Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936), and Sergeant York (1941) (an Oscar for Cooper). 

All of the movies in this column are available, some for free, some not.  All are fine for 10 and up.

                                                     MICHAEL CRICHTON

Michael Crichton left us in 2008 at the way-too-young age of 66. He was perhaps the most cinematic writer of our time. Many of his exciting books were made into splendid movies. He also dreamed up, produced and wrote many of the episodes of the hugely popular TV show, ER.

The Andromeda Strain (1971) is about a team of scientists racing against time to thwart a virus from outer space. The book is a real nail-biter; the film a little less so, but still a worthwhile watch. The 2008 remake is definitely NOT a worthwhile watch. It is simply awful. 

The fascinating Westworld (1973) involves a future camp where people can participate in whatever fantasy they choose. Richard Benjamin picks the Old West, and has a ball until it looks like the robotic denizens, led by Yul Brynner, have malfunctioned. It became a huge HBO series hit in 2016, which lasted for six seasons.

George Segal’s brain is wired in a risky experiment to save his life and of course things go terribly wrong in Terminal Man (1974). Not to be confused with the 2004 movie with Tom Hanks trying to figure out how to help a poor man trapped in an airport terminal because of a coup in his home country. 

The Great Train Robbery (1979) is Michael Crichton’s take on the most famous robbery in British history. It looks fantastic (replicating the 1880's) as the stellar cast (Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland) plot how  to rob a moving train carrying gold. The incredibly complicated plan for the heist is cinematic gold. 

The idea of Jurassic Park (1993), the cloning of long-dead dinosaurs from recovered DNA, is just brilliant. The book is great, the film less so. The story is pretty well botched by the movie- but oh, those dinosaurs! What a thrill! And the special effects are about the whole show in The Lost World (1997) involving a second island filled with killer creatures from the past.

There are no special effects or scientific marvels in Rising Sun (1993). It is a good old murder mystery with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes trying to figure out who did in a visiting Japanese big shot, and how it happened. I did not see the amazing solution coming!

Also worth a look is the medical thriller Coma (1978), ably directed by Mr. Crichton from a Robin Cook novel. In a big city hospital, patients are being stolen for spare parts! Genevieve Bujold suspects the worst, and Richard Widmark knows it. 

All of the films in this column are available somewhere. All are for grown-ups.

                                                           WILLIAM FAULKNER

He won the Pulitzer and the Nobel. He worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for over 20 years because he needed the money. Of his over 50 script contributions, most died without filming. But he did help on two tremendous classics: To Have and Have Not (1944) and The Big Sleep (1946). His writing was almost as dense as James Joyce’s and he was not the most accessible of authors.

Adapting his pithy novels and stories to the silver screen was not an easy task. Many tried. Many failed. But some succeeded and there are some very fine movies based on Faulkner’s work.

I will start with my personal favorite. The Reivers (1969) is perhaps the most accessible Faulkner film from probably his most accessible story. Ok, reivers are thieves. Steve McQueen stars as Boon Hoggenbeck, a likeable neer-do-well. He is absolutely smitten with a spanking new 1905 Winton Flyer, owned, unfortunately for Boon, by the powerful Boss McCaslin (Will Geer). Boon steals the care (for the second time) and lights out for Memphis with a kid, Lucius, and a stowaway, Ned. There are many adventures on the way, some harrowing, mostly hilarious. 

The Tarnished Angels (1957) is based on the Faulkner novel Pylon. Robert Stack portrays embittered pilot Roger Shumann who grinds out a meager living risking his life as a stunt flyer. Dorothy Malone plays his long-suffering wife Laverne, and Rock Hudson is on board as a reporter writing about them. The stunts are good. The acting not so much, but it is a good story with a less than Hollywoodish ending. 

Intruder In The Dust (1949) has a bunch of actors you’ve never heard of except for the always present Will Geer, who plays the sheriff. It’s a really good story about Lucas Beauchamp, a Black man unjustly accused of killling a white man. He may be saved by the town lawyer, an elderly lady and two teenage boys. Of course he is, this is Hollywood! Really good story, though. The Long Hot Summer (1968) is based on three Faulkner novellas about a drifter wandering into a small Mississippi town and infiltrating a local family. The lobby card says The People, Language and World of Faulkner. Yep. Future married couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are the sparks that flame this one up. Newman is Ben Quick, who happens into the small town and the lives of its principal family. 

Barn Burning (1980) has Tommy Lee Jones and not much else to recommend it, but it barely scrapes over the recommended fence. 

The Sound and the Fury (1959) stars Yul Brynner as a Southern stud, and that’s about all you need to know. The 2014 version is even worse.  As I Lay Dying (2013) is a barking dog. 

All of these movies are for grown-ups.