Classic Movie Corner

This is a new series of articles in which I will recommend a classic movie. And I mean classic! If you haven't seen these then you are missing out on what has been borrowed from to make today's great movies. It had to start somewhere and these movies are it!

One of my favorite movies is Now, Voyager (1942, Warner Bros.). Starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains (both of Casablanca fame) this movie was made at a time when actors, even what we would call super stars of today, made over twenty movies a year. Each studio, in a sense, owned the actors that worked for them. They weren't making "blockbusters" just entertainment. Bette Davis had to lobby the studio to get the part (hard to believe) and won it. It is said that she had never thrown herself into a part more and this is evident in her Oscar nominated performance as Charlotte Vale a frumpy spinster Aunt who is driven from her home by an oppressive mother and dissolving confidence and into the care of Dr. Jaquith (Rains) who tries to keep her from total breakdown by therapy and being out of her otherwise emotionally destructive environment.
After her therapy, Charlotte decides to embark, by herself, on a cruise to South America. She has totally transformed herself from absolute frump to stunning beauty (I normally wouldn't call Davis a stunning beauty). I am not a costume person but her ensembles are stunning. On the cruise she meets a group of travellers including Jerry Durrance (Henreid) whose natural friendly charm and good looks grab Charlotte's attention. Jerry notices, not a transformed frump, but a lovely woman. He is fascinated by her distance and mystery. They open up to each other and fall in love. Not in the same sense we have in movies today. There is kissing, clutching, holding...all accompanied by Max Steiner's Oscar winning score...who needs sex scenes? The sizzling scenes between the two stars are enough.
After the cruise, it is back to reality. For Charlotte it is back to face her mother and for Jerry it is back to face the problems at home that include a troubled teenage girl. Charlotte tries to go home and is brilliant the way she faces down her mother, over and over again. Charlotte is even courted by a doctor that never noticed her before even though he had been at the house for dinner parties many times. The dialogue has you glued to every scene in which Charlotte explains very carefully to her mother why she does what she does. After one such fight, her mother has a fall and then eventually a heart attack. Charlotte is filled with guilt and escapes to Dr. Jaquith's sanatorium. There she meets Tina. A teenage girl that reminds Charlotte of herself. She discovers that Tina is Jerry's daughter and decides to take an interest in her. By today's standards of viewing this might seem strange but the innocence of the times do not make it sinister at all. Charlotte helps the girl out of love for Jerry, at first, and then by her genuine love for the girl. Charlotte and Tina are victorious in their transformations and receiving love - from Jerry.
Jerry and Charlotte bump into each other various times during the film, after the cruise, and you will be on the edge of your seat waiting for them to embrace. But Jerry is still married and Charlotte has her morals. We know...that romance is not dead.
And even in the end after agreeing that they shouldn't be romantically involved...all Jerry can say is, "Shall we have a cigarette on it?" And as he lights both cigarettes in his mouth and hands one to her, she says, "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon... we have the stars."
They don't make like that anymore.

Shock Value

Okay, what's the deal with network television shows just having to have a big shocker of season ender that includes someone being killed or appearing to be? Sure, you want someone to tune in during the fall but does someone have to be blown away to have that happen? I think the writers' strike was that the writers were struck in the head with something. I mean this is the best they can do? The networks are, with good reason, nervous about keeping viewers. The strike obliterated some shows and put some on hold until the fall - with the networks hoping to regain the viewers. But I find their way of luring us back to our current favorites is just plain unimaginative. These used to be called "cliffhangers" but in this case...they more than jumped off.
Four of the shows I watch regularly had one of these endings.
CSI: Miami ended with David Caruso shot and looking kind of lifeless. We know he won't make the NYPD Blue mistake again - he'll be back. Sunglasses and over-acting.
CSI (Vegas) ended with Warrick being graphically shot in the neck while sitting in his car. I mean unnecessarily graphic. He's sitting in the car and a dirty cop (non one knows he's dirty) is talking to him and we see him shoot Warrick in the neck (we are watching from the driver's side window). We can see the exit wound! He sits in the seat gurgling and coughing with blood coming out his neck...then he's dead! True that actor was leaving anyway and everyone knew it...but really...they had to do it like that? He just had a nice meal with his friends and you see everyone exit the cafe smiling about what a good time they had. Then you see that?! Bang!!! That's the ending Soprano fans wanted to see...not CSI.
NCIS ended with the Director, Jennie Sheppard, being blown away in a big gun battle. Her death was a little more of her taking some bad guys with her...but still...why? She is dying of some degenerative disease and wants to go out on her terms while protecting some government secret. She basically lays in wait for the bad guys. Not that graphic an ending...you see from the outside a huge gun battle that is happening inside the diner. Jennie is seen laying in blood...ALOT of blood. CBS had been saying for months someone would not survive until next season. I could have thought of a few more characters she could have taken with her. The show is weakly written...but I still watch it. Abby and Ducky are worth it.
Criminal Minds is a never miss favorite BUT even they had to stoop to the someone dies ending! You don't know who it is...at least not until the fall. The team is hunting down some homegrown terrorists and they realize they are possibly being targeted. So, what do they do...all leave the various murder scenes alone. You see four of the main characters getting into a different big black government SUV (music is swelling - screen split into four shots) then BAM!!! One of them is blown to kingdom come! We don't know who! Tune in this fall! Lame. This is the only show that has me interested in tuning in next season. With protest.
When J.R. was shot on Dallas, that was one of the most shocking events on TV. No one got shot at the end of a season back then. At the time it was brilliant. I guess now, writers feel we are so desensitized to violence (and we are) that they feel we need gurgling blood from a favorite character's neck to keep us interested. I really don't need to see that.
Babylon 5 had one of my favorite cliffhangers that had the main character jumping into a deep abyss with a space ship full of nuclear explosives homing in on his signal...he disappeared into the darkness with the ship (bright white) coming straight out of space and following him...then BOOM! Fade to black. Everyone I knew who watched that episode screamed out loud with disbelief and horror. You know we tuned in the next season!
Star Trek: The Next Generation was one of the only TV shows the really knew how to do a cliffhanger, a great one, season after season. Klingon civil war, time traveling aliens (Data's head!), Tasha Yar as a Romulan...and the ultimate...Picard as a Borg! C'mon! You can't beat that! If you can't remember the quintessential cliffhanger image...just remember one of the best lines on TV...
"Resistance is futile...Number One..."
Stay tuned...

Iron Man

I work with complete comic book fans. I would say more than fans...I would say true believers that know every story line and incarnation of every super hero there ever was. And when Iron Man came out they told me it was the best adaptation of a comic book hero they had ever seen. With that being said - I had to see this movie. I should mention that I am not a comic book person. My knowledge of the comic book super heroes is from cartoons, live action TV shows and movies. I don't base my opinion on whether or not the movie is true to the comic (with the exception of the Phantom which I loyally read in the paper every day and was a great movie). I just love an entertaining movie.
Iron Man delivers! And a franchise is born!
Iron Man is not for someone that just wants to see complete action and effects. Iron Man is what I would call a thinking person's action movie. Robert Downey Jr. (BRILLIANT!!!) plays the flawed main character - Tony Stark, a womanizing boozer, who develops high tech weapons for the military and owns the company. Stark is in Afghanistan giving a preview to the military of one of his weapons when he captured by militants and kept captive for months. The captures want him to use their stockpile of weapons (his weapons - which makes him wonder how they got them) to make a missile. But instead Stark makes his first Iron Man suit and his own artificial heart. After his ordeal Stark is a changed man who is obsessed with his Iron Man concept and improving it. This is most of the movie - the character development. I won't go into much more...since you are going to see this movie!
Downey is a joy to watch on screen and you cheer for this talented actor's big comeback to the big screen. He is a naturally funny guy, he brings the same kind of warmth and playing off the irony of things that Michael Keaton did as Bruce Wayne. Be a serious hero but realize that the whole concept can appear a bit absurd to the outsider.
Side note: As a movie watcher it is interesting to see the history of who our bad guys are in hero movies...it was the Nazis, then Russians or Chinese (Communists in general), rouge Russians/Eastern Europe and now middle easterners...basically whoever we envision at the time as the worst possible enemy we could have and do have. Usually for super heroes it is a mad scientist or brilliant criminal mind...
Iron Man is much like Batman in the fact that he doesn't possess any real super powers (other than his heart generator that runs his suit). He wasn't born with powers or fall into a vat of toxic waste. He has a mission and toys to get it done. I like movies that focus on the development of characters as long as it is done right. I really wasn't crazy about the last Batman movie - at least not as crazy about it as other fans. I think it spent way to long on the character's personal journey and you know what? I really don't care! We already know what Bruce Wayne's motivation was...I didn't need to see him in his full training sessions. That is why there didn't need to be three Star Wars prequels - one and half would have been fine, thank you. Back to the movie...
Iron Man basically rocks! And comic book fans MUST sit through all the credits until the end (like X-Men 3) and you will see a glimpse into the future of this franchise and give the comic book folks a thrill. With a good supporting cast including Jeff Bridges and Terrance Howard this movie will leave you ready to rock out...Black Sabbath style.
MMMMM (out of 5 M's)

Mother's Day

I have been meaning to write this entry for a long time and Mother's Day has inspired me.
There are lots of inspired tales about being a mother that I could comment on but I would like to focus on something I have been thinking about for...2 years, 7 months and 5 days...that I am the mother of a girl.
I don't know if man feels this intense pressure of being the example of manhood he sets for his son. Being a parent is hard enough. I can tell you that I feel, as my daughter never takes her eyes off me, that I have the monumental responsibility of being the representative of the human female to my daughter.
She stands in the doorway of the bathroom watching me get ready in the morning. She sees me put in my earrings and asks if she can have earrings too and hands me my shoes. What is she thinking? That she wants to me?
They say that babies aren't born with a sense of gender and that is something we put on them. That may be true for the most part. My son calls my daughter, "he," and "him." But it seems my daughter knows she is a girl or at least that she and I share some of the same physical characteristics. She knows she is a girl. She loves pink, princesses and baby dolls - those that know me know I never encouraged this. It just evolved. She just evolves...on her own.
She wants to go on every ride at Busch Garden's. Even the ones that I am too big for and she has to go on alone. She is not afraid. She is my daughter. Could I have instilled this lack of fear?
She is the youngest in the house yet she makes her voice known. If you don't hear her at first, don't worry, you will.
What did the mothers of Hillary Clinton, Billie Jean King, Katie Couric or Admiral Grace Hopper think their daughters would be up to in life? What kind of women were they to encourage their daughters to be successful? Am I that mother?
My daughter is adorable and beautiful. And not just on the outside. I can see her beauty shining through her from deep within. A 2 year old with deep soul?
I will return to my first thoughts...that she looks to me to be the example of womanhood. Me! Me? I was worried having a girl. Who was I kidding? My fear of having a girl was that I would have be the example. Of course, my son looks to me as an example but not in the same exact way. A boy will always be a boy but a girl will be a woman. My little woman.
She is kind and gentle to her "baby." Could be a baby doll or stuffed animal. She hugs it, kisses it, puts it to bed and I have even heard her sing to her baby...what I sing to her, "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You," by the Four Seasons. Am I her role model?
She is an independent girl. She is stubborn and is at odds with her father - as they share some of the same temperament. She is my angel.
I think she is here in the world to teach me something.
One day, a few months ago, I asked her a series of questions, as she sat on my lap and I rubbed her hair...
"I wonder what you will be? Will you do great things?"
"No."
"Will you cure cancer?"
"No."
"Will you be President?"
"No."
"Will you be famous?"
"No."
"Will you be a great woman?"
"No."
"Will you love your mommy?"
"YES!"
That's my girl!

Juno: The Review

I have overheard people say, "Juno? Isn't that the pregnant teen movie? Uh, I'll skip it." Probably the same people who thought Little Miss Sunshine was about a girl in a beauty pageant. It's okay with me if they want to miss a gem in this year's movie garbage pile. Actually, if you are one of those people that prefer to be cinematically stunted...then you don't have to continue reading this review. For the rest of you keen movie watchers...
Juno was just what I needed. I was so hoping it was good. I was having a crappy day and didn't need to be disappointed like I was by the rest of the Oscar nominated movies (exception being Michael Clayton). I knew Juno was about a pregnant teenager and her wit in the previews was enough to spark my interest. The script and the cast make this movie a delight. Ellen Page (X-Men 3, Hard Candy) is brilliant as the title character. She is a 16 year old girl who has sex with her best friend once and well...it only takes once. Her boyfriend/best friend is kind of an awkward semi-jock geek who is smitten with her and who no one else thinks "had it in him" to get someone pregnant. These aren't bad kids from bad homes - the stigma. Juno's parents take it as well as anyone can. The father (J.K. Simmons) is disappointed and her step-mother goes right to work on a prenatal care plan. The whole school knows and Juno doesn't care. She's pregnant - it'll speak for itself. She is already somewhat mature (and seems more mature than some of the adults we meet) and grows even more through her pregnancy (no pun intended). With the supporting cast of Justin Bateman and Jennifer Garner (so much potential!) this movie can do no wrong.
Jason Reitman, who also wrote and directed Thank You For Smoking, makes this movie about an uncomfortable subject...more comfortable with his frank speaking characters who are human and doing the best they can with it.
It's hard to say if this movie was better than Michael Clayton. It certainly beats out any other nominated movies from last year. This is a hard movie to peg. It would be like putting Little Miss Sunshine or Thank You For Smoking in a genre. Comedy? Drama? Like Juno, these movies fall into their own category - that would be brilliant.
MMMMM (out of 5 M's)