Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night": The Hitchhiking Sequence

{Reposted from 2009}
From Frank Capra's 1934 ground-breaking It Happened One Night -- the first film ever to sweep the major Oscar categories -- here's the film's most famous sequence: "Hitchhiking".

Claudette Colbert plays a runaway heiress and Clark Gable is the worldly reporter who can both help her escape her controlling father and also "get the story" that will bolster his career. ("Runaway heiress" was a common theme in films of the 30s and 40s. This film came out to low initial expectations, but, as word mouth got around, the film found it's audience and remains popular to this day.)

Two things to keep in mind regarding this sequence: first, the theme: "The limb is mightier than the thumb"; second, watch the film editing carefully as Colbert gets a car to stop from them. It's a perfect demonstration of the power of editing, showing Capra's genius emerging.

Jimi Hendrix Would Turn 71 Today

I rewatched Jimi Hendrix perform the currently definitive cover of The Star Spangled Banner in the original Woodstock (1970) documentary recently.

I wondered, would the high regard for Jimi's cover hold up over time? My money is on Jimi holding onto the lead regarding the national anthem. He shifted gears and, for those willing to take the ride, will continue to bring war back in a war poem.

Rest in peace, Jimi.

"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951): Brando Breaks Out

Tennessee Williams

Marlon Brando, 1947

I just finished rewatching director Elia Kazan's 1951 film of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, the breakout film role for Marlon Brando combining his raw talent and "method" acting style in creating his character Stanley Kowalski. While the story clearly revolves around Vivien Leigh's character Blanche, one can't help but notice Brando's dominating presence.

As for Blanche, she gets to go first. flustered upon arrival, the last leg of the trip done by steetcar -- Blanche notes, "Daylight never exposed so total a ruin." She is clearly in a mental state or ruin.

The Wikipedia contributors, discussing Tennessee Williams' 1947 Pulitzer prize winning play and it's acclaimed screen adaptation discussed here, put it this way:

Tennessee Williams plotted out a narrative of powerful allegory. The story line unfolds as the drama of life primed by two divergent forces on an unavoidable collision course. It is the dreamscape world of culture and refinement represented by Blanche DuBois in conflict with harsh, unadorned reality epitomized by the character of Stanley Kowalski.

When all the money was gone, when Belle Reeve, the family mansion in Auriol, Mississippi, has been recklessly mortgaged into oblivion, sisters Blanche (Vivien Leigh) and Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter) were faced with a dilemma. Blanche, failing to save either Belle Reeve, or her virtue, comes to"visit" Stella and Stanley living in the back end of the New Orleans French Quarter. Blanche is in very fragile condition. Stanley, on the other hand, is as a raw force of nature, contemptible of the airs of wealth and refinement Blanche displays.

Stanley is also suspicious of why Blanche left her family home in Mississippi, which in turn is breaking up his sensual paradise with Stella. Stella is forced to choose her allegiance -- no simple matter. But as the play evolves, Stella stays neurtral but sympathic to Blanche's situation.

The longer Blanche stays, the bolder Stella becomes, leading to dangerous arguments, the result of Stanley's growing frustration. After one violent fight between Stella and Stanley, Brando enters American film culture histroy with this passion-driven scene.

It's a credit to Williams and Kazan that, once the forces of the Production Code got through toning down the film, the carnal lust between Stella and Stanley remains apparent. Moreover, the conflict Blanche's presence brings to the small Kowalski apartment, and Stanley's disdain for all Blanche represents, remain forcefully intact.

Marlon Brando, building on his starring role in the original Broadway production of the play, began changing screen acting permanently, bringing his own style of method acting, 'whereby actors create in themselves the thoughts and feelings of their characters, developing lifelike performances.' (For more, see Method Acting.)

Brando, here and in subsequent roles such as Terry Malloy in Kazan's 1953 On the Waterfront, paves the way for such talents as Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Al Pachino, and this year's Academy award winner for best actor, Daniel Day-Lewis. But in Streetcar, as Stanley Kowalski, Brando is himself an emerging talent, bringing a raw, brooding, lustful intensity to his performance that made Stanley the perfect foil to Blanche's delicate, fragile and fading refinement.

When these forces collide, Tennessee Williams' and Elia Kazan's solid craftsmanship shape a successful powerhouse drama starring the multi-talented combination of Vivien Leigh, Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, giving us a rarely equaled work of art on film.

All I will say beyond that is see the Kazan film. If I haven't convinced you, the trailer below just might.

"The Hustler" (1961, dir. Robert Rossen): "The Ability of Character to Triumph Over Talent"

Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman lag for the break in The Hustler

Paul Newman and Piper Laurie Share a Cigarette,

as well as Their Hopes and Insecurities

O so much more than a fine film about the life of a professional pool hustler who wants to prove he's the best player Straight pool player there ever was, Robert Rossen's film also explores the fragile, easily shatterable, relationship between Fast Eddie Nelson (Newman) and the woman he becomes involved with, Sarah (Piper Laurie). This relationship is further strained when professional gambler Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) enters the picture, taking over as the quite Machiavellian manager for Fast Eddie. To reveal more of the plot here would simply spoil the subtle and powerful developments throughout this fine drama, based on Sidney Carroll's 1959 novel of the same name.

(left to right) George C. Scott and Paul Newman

Jackie Gleason's performance as "Minnesota Fats", the Man, the best there is in the game, is truly inspiring. So much so that as a youngster growing up the 60's, I thought, incorrectly, that "Minnesota Fats" was in fact the best pool player in world. I learned recently that, at that time, another player was ranked number one back then. A heavy set fellow by another name, adopted the name "Minnesota Fats" to embellish his own reputation, drawing of Gleason's stellar performance here. And the trick worked.

But that alludes to the most important aspects of competitive sports, making the other player or team think you are the best, as well as having the well-honed skill to back that up. What makes this film even more engrossing than a good sports drama is the tragic psychological triangle that develops when the Newman/Laurie couple encounter George C. Scott's tragic meddling in both their lives. But as I note in the title of this post, character, strength of will, ultimately prevail.

Rossen's film is not only a great sports drama, but also an exploration of human frailty and the ultimate survival of those strong enough to weather the storm of life.

(Note: Check out part of the soundtrack, with more great stills from the film, in the jukebox atop the left column.)

"What Do You Think We Were Doing Out There, Mrs. Fellows, Spawning?": Tennessee's The Night of the Iguana (1961, play, Tennessee Williams; 1962)

Poster and Cover of MGM Promotional Booklet

I re-watched John Huston's film of Tennessee Williams' play The Night of the Iguana one afternoon recently. Tennessee Williams' poetry washed over me -- delightful as the gentle "Indian Summer" shower that starting during the film. I had to pause the film to enjoy the music of the much-needed rain, then on my way back in the apartment, stopped at the computer to jot down these lines.

The post title comes from a confrontation at the beach between disgraced minister T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton) and Ms. Fellows (Sue Lyon). A young girl on the tour of the Pacific coast of Mexico Rev. Shannon follows him into the water when he escaping the group and taking a much needed swim. Shannon's remark about spawning made me bust out laughing.

There's much to come, and I'm going back to my Tennessee Williams / John Huston gem now, but trust me. You won't be sorry if you give this classic a chance. Right now, I feel like I'm getting my own private showing of the film, and the gentle rain is turning this into one fine afternoon.

Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner have established their characters now. Ava, a fishing widow now running her Mexico resort hotel with her "night-swimming" dancing, simple, obedient young men. Maxine keeps her young men around as told off butch spinster Ms. Fellows after Fellows has Rev. Shannon fired from his last chance at a meaningul existence before what's left of his nerves and restraint shatter.

Mr. Shannon continues his fall as Deborah Kerr steps in both as chef to the closed-for-the-season tourist hotel as well as therapist to the Reverend as he abandons his anxiety about being fired and steers toward the often lethal combination of rum cocoas and suicidal ideation.

All that, the fate of the Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shanning hanging in the balance -- whether to crack or pull himself together with the help of the world's oldest practicing poet and a woman who is clearly not in command of her carnal desires, or take that long westward swim from the beach just south of Puerta Viarta, Mexico. Williams brings his poem to a close with Burton and Miss Jelkes playing God and cutting the at-the-end-of-his rope iguana free.

Complementary Presentations of "Lord Jim": Conrad's Book and Brooks' Film

Redux

Jim (Peter O'Toole): .... I've been a so-called coward and a so-called hero and there's not the thickness of a sheet of paper between them. Maybe cowards and heroes are just ordinary men who, for a split second, do something out of the ordinary. That's all.

Though truly divergent works of art, with more than a few threads of a central theme, Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim (written 1899-1900) and Richard Brooks' 1965 film of the same name are both adventures worth taking. Each work stands on it own merits, Conrad's accomplishment standing as one of the great books in modern English.

I read the book first and highly recommend starting with it. Then the film may serve as, not an equal, but a fine supplementary work of art. Supplementary in the most important sense in that it is an action adventure film with its serious themes stripped down, but still looming. While Conrad's novel is a meticulous examination of the diverse elements of the human character and and "simple twists of fate", the novel brings the characters into sharp focus. The film's outstanding cast truly bring the characters to life.

So take a South Seas adventure from the late 19th century and learn a little about what heroes and courage are really all about.

New York Times Critic's Pick: "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951)

I posted a YouTube clip of Streetcar a while back and briefly discussed this classic. But I just don't have the chops to discuss the film as well as ace critic A. O. Scott does here. So I'm turning this post over to Scott and this New York Times video clip. A Streetcar Named Desire is simply too good a film for anything less than a well done review.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (2010 DVD release): "Tumbling Dice"

Though I've been an ardent Stones fan since the 70s, I've never had the chance to see any concert footage from what many would argue is the best tour the band ever did -- their 1972 tour in support of Exile on Main St. This is Mick Taylor's last tour as a Stone and the band is in peak form.

Can't think of a holiday gift for that Stones fan you know? Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones was re-released in October 2010 on DVD for the first time, and this Stones fan will act very surprised (and pleased) if he gets a copy in his stocking. 'Til then, I've got a wonderful bootleg of one of the tour concerts to keep me warm.

Folks, enjoy this little taste above, the Stones live in '72 performing a favorite of mine, Tumbling Dice.

"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."

In 1968, when Stanley Kubrick's masterwork 2001: A Space Odyssey was released, I was 11 and my grandfather was 55. The pre-release hype on the film had been so big that he took me to the Tampa premiere of the film. He and I had never been to a film together before, but he thought this would be a culturally significant event and he didn't want me to miss it.

When we emerged from the theater after viewing the film, I distinctly remember the two of us looking at each other with expressions of "What the hell was that?" I'm sure it was the last Kubrick film he ever saw, but for me it was the beginning of a journey of exploration.

I'm 53 now and I'd guess I've seen the film 20 times since its release, each time comprehending a little bit more of what Kubrick was saying. It's been a slow, hard road, but well worth the investment of time and mental energy. Now, as I've, somewhat, come to piece the puzzle of the film together, one of the things I love most about it is that 2001 leaves so many questions unanswered.

It's been a mind blower for 40 years and I see no reason it will stop being a mind blower anytime soon.

So thanks, Granddad. I know you didn't have much fun that summer afternoon back in 1968, but you achieved your primary goal: getting me started early on exploring this historic film.

Readers who recognized the reference in this post's title will know this little taste I'm throwin' in above. But realistically, this is a film you have to study as a whole to get what it has to give. And it has plenty to give.

Tennessee Williams' "A Street Car Named Desire" (the 1951 film)

They won't let me show you a scene from this Hollywood masterpiece, though a great many are posted on YouTube, some listed at the end of the re-release trailer above. But A Streetcar Named Desire is playing in a few minutes on TCM and I couldn't think of a better topic to cover here.

This is the film that made Marlon Brando a star. This is the film where Vivien Leigh somehow embraces her own mental instability and channels it into her Oscar-winning performance. This film is one of the very best adaptations of a Tennessee Williams play brought to the screen.

So by all means, check it out on TCM tonight or see it at your first opportunity. Or if you're like me, see it again, just because you've got the chance. Elia Kazan's 1951 film is timeless; it just doesn't wear out.

Gotta go, it's almost showtime.

Classic Film This Summer at the Tampa Theatre

Beginning on June 6th with Topper, The Tampa Theatre (pictured above) Summer Classics Series will air a number of films of the "golden age" of Hollywood and one German expressionist silent classic. More information is available at the Tampa Theatre's website.

I'm planning on seeing three or four films in the series, including His Girl Friday, Casablanca, and the newly restored Metropolis (1927) with live musical accompaniment on the theatre's mighty Wurlitzer organ.

Equal Justice in the American South: "Intruder in the Dust" (1949)

Recently I watched TCM's airing of a film I knew absolutely nothing about, an adaptation of William Faulkner's novel Intruder in the Dust. I gave the film a chance because my cable provider has a relatively reliable rating system for films and gave it 4 of 4 stars. As soon as I saw in the opening credits the film was based on a Faulkner novel I was persuaded.

I made a good decision. This 1949 film documents the real life racial conditions in rural Mississippi in the 1940's. I'll make just two minor additions to TCM's own summary of the film: "Only a young [white] boy and an [elderly white] woman stand between an innocent black man and a lynch mob." The film, with a few small flaws, is excellent.

The film was made on location in Faulkner's home town of Oxford, Mississippi, using the local residents as extras. This adds a raw, authentic quality to the townspeople and the sequences shot in the surrounding woodlands. The film weaves an thrilling crime story with a tale of, to paraphrase one of Faulkner's letters, the responsibilities whites owed blacks in the south -- one part of the United States where equal protection of the law for blacks was no where to be found.

While this film does not have the star power or depth of To Kill a Mockingbird, Juano Hernandez turns in a timeless performance as proud black farmer Lucas Beauchamp.

One side note in closing: I spent the entire film and a good bit of time afterward trying to understand the meaning of the film and the novel's title: Intruder in the Dust. For those of you who might have seen or will see the film, I've got a theory: lumber mill sawdust.

Janis and Otis at the Monterey Pop Festival, 1967

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Thank God for the Sundance Channel. My evening was going nowhere last night 'til I noticed that Sundance was airing D. A. Pennebaker's Monterey Pop, an 80 minute documentary on the first major American rock festival -- three days in June of San Fransisco's 1967 Summer of Love. Yeah, that's right, the festival where Jimi Hendrix becomes a rock icon, setting his guitar and the rock world on fire.

The performances are strand of pearls. In addition to Jimi, the blues and soul crowd out there gets more than they could possibly hope for: Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company covering Big Mama Thornton's Ball and Chain; then Otis Redding redefining I've Been Loving You Too Long.

The YouTube clips of Janis and Otis above don't nearly do justice to the original sound and picture in the film. (Otis covering the Stones' Satisfaction wasn't in the original Pennebaker film, so take it as a bonus to make up for the bootleg quality of these clips.)

And by all means check out the film. All these years later, these landmark performances still rank as world class. Though only 80 minutes long, only a taste of the festival, Monterey Pop ranks with the finest rock films ever made.

Data on Gold Coast Bluenote: An Apparently Popular Post on the Film "To Kill a Mockingkingbird"

The post that, far and away gets the most hits here at Gold Coast Bluenote (GCB), is a discussion of the film made from Horton Foote's screenplay -- based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel -- for the 1962 film starring Gregory Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird. My hypothesis is that a substantial number of students assigned to read the book or see the film may find my 2007 GCB post, 'It's a Sin to Kill a Mockingbird', because the post's title is a line directly from the film. Image and article searches, therefore, using primarily but not exclusively Google search engines, hit home here.

I find it a good time, to repost this modest effort up front for those who might otherwise miss it.

Now, 'to play it again, Sam' so to speak, let's revisit my discussion of director Robert Mullingan's inspirational film:

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The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.
(- Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23, spoken by the character Atticus)

Gregory Peck's performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird inspired many a young social activist and prospective lawyer to follow Atticus' example and seek social justice, whatever the personal cost. These young idealists would drop like flies as the realities of the real world closed around them. But a few survived to carry the torch for the equality of all men and women under the law.

And the film's impact stretches even further.

The Story of Movies Foundation uses the film To Kill A Mockingbird in the The Story of Movies as a way to provide middle school children a ".... guide to [the] students in learning how to read moving images. Although teachers frequently use films in the classroom, film as language and as historical and cultural documents is not widely taught. ...."

Lovers of great books -- me, I plead guilty -- are becoming fewer and farther between as the electronic media age progresses and instant visual and audio gratification becomes the status quo. But Harper Lee's novel survives as assigned classroom reading and Robert Mulligan's 1962 film adaptation still inspires idealists young and old to this day.

A large part of the credit goes to Gregory Peck for his performance in the role of Atticus Finch. Peck brings a sense of moral certainty, legal ethics and talent, as well as compassionate single-parent wisdom to the role that is truly astonishing.

Thanks Ms. Lee, Mr. Peck, and everyone who contributed to the creation of this film; I am re-inspired and given hope for humanity every time I see this film masterwork.

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Lord Jim: Conrad's Book and Brooks' film

Jim (Peter O'Toole): I've been a so-called coward and a so-called hero and there's not the thickness of a sheet of paper between them. Maybe cowards and heroes are just ordinary men who, for a split second, do something out of the ordinary. That's all.

Though truly divergent works of art, with more than a few threads of a central theme, Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim (1899-1900) and Richard Brooks' 1965 film of the same name are both adventures worth taking. Each work stands on it own merits.

I read the book first and highly recommend starting with it. Then the film may serve as, not an equal, but a fine supplementary work of art. Supplementary in the most important sense in that it is an action adventure film with its serious themes stripped down, but still looming. While Conrad's novel is a meticulous examination an array of the elements of the human character and and "simple twists of fate." While the novel brings the characters into sharp focus, the film's cast truly bring the characters to life.

So take a South Seas adventure from the 19th century and learn a little about what heroes and courage are really all about.

A Face That Could Break a Thousand Hearts

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Faces such as this don't come wrapped in this much talent very often. To read more about Greta Garbo, see the Wikipedia entry here. In the mean time, enjoy these stills of one of the greatest film talents ever.

In Memoriam: Cyd Charisse

Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly in the film: Singing in the Rain
(released in 1952)

We lost Cyd this year, she has gone on to a better place. Ms. Charisse, truly, you are the best dancer I ever hope to see perform. Your passing touches me.

Requiscat in Pace.

Great Art: Getting It Paid For, and Finished! -- "The Agony and the Ecstasy"

The Agony and the Ecstasy
(1965; directed by Sir Carol Reed)

I recently spoke to several of my friends, one a film buff and the others folks who would love the story told here, and none of them had seen this film, much less read the book. Given what I knew about who I was talkin' to, I was quite surprised.

The Agony and the Ecstasy is based on one segment of Irving Stone's biographical novel of the same name. This superb film tells the story of the tumultuous relationship between Michelangelo Buonarroti and Pope Julius II over the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

I have to admit, seeing Rex Harrison in a role where he quite effectively, as Pope Julius to Heston's Michelangelo, puts Charlton Heston in his place is, well, delicious. Heston was playing so many God-like roles in those days, it's good to see someone with the authority to put such a gigantic screen presence in his place.

But more importantly, the history of the now renovated Sistine Chapel ceiling, one of the greatest art accomplishments of the Italian Renaissance, is fundamentally important. It gives the viewer substantial insight into the ever difficult relationship between a great artist and a patron he (or she) must rely on to continue working.

In short, see this film. It is an essential for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of how great art gets made.