Barbarella (1968)

Barbarella
Director: Roger Vadim
France/Italy 1968
98 min
Starring: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea, David Hemmings and Marcel Marceau.

Dildano: [radioing instructions to the rebel army] And our password will be... Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. 

Barbarella: You mean the secret password is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch? 

Dildano: Exactly. 

The password is, by the way, the name of a real village and community in Wales. For its Wikipedia page and some help with the pronunciation, I will gladly provide you with a link.

As much as I adore this film, I almost have to love the tagline more. "Who can save the universe?" Well, it sure as hell isn't Barbarella! She knows how to dress and wear her hair, but she seems to have a hard time not getting distracted by attractive (and also not-very-attractive) men.

Barbarella's (Jane Fonda) initial goal is to find and stop the evil mastermind Durand Durand (Milo O'Shea, and yes - the group Duran Duran got their name from this character), who threatens to interrupt centuries of intergalactic peace with a weapon of mass destruction. (Cold War vibes, anyone?) And the rest of the film is an orgy of cool 1960's music, short skirts (if any), fabulous boots, sarcastic comments and... well, orgies. Although by 1968 filmmakers still had the decency to skip the porn, and instead only indicate all action worthy of Markis de Sade. (At least in the United States - Swedish films made at the same time is another topic indeed.)
The lovely thing with the "promiscuity" is that this sexually active Barbarella actually is saved in the end "by her innocence"! Oh, I should have lived in the 1960's.

I have the feeling that some people may believe that this film objectifies women. And yes, it does. But it objectifies men equally - me and a film classmate drooled immeasurable amounts over the blind angel Pygar (John Phillip Law), and somewhat shamefully over the resistance character suitably named Dildano (David Hemmings). And if pantomime genius Marcel Marceau accepted a part in this movie, one has to be able not to take it too seriously!

The film constantly underlines that it thinks itself ridiculous, most notably by sarcastic one-liners by Barbarella. A couple of examples:
Barbarella is captured in a plastic cage and attacked by a giant flock of birds. After having wined a bit about it, she calmly states that "this is a much too poetic way to die".
Walking in the castle of SoGo (a town named after the biblical Sodom and Gomorra), Barbarella and Pygar hear a scream. She first exclaims, as one would, "What's that screaming?", then follows it up with "A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming..."

Male objectification.
Above: Pygar. Below: Dildano.

What more can I say? I love this film. It's funny, it's over-the-top, it's campy. It is obviously, and rightfully, listed among the "Top 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made" in The Official Razzie Movie Guide. I want that book. The only thing that seemed missing was the indicated, but never fulfilled, female pleasure activities between Barbarella and The Great Tyrant (Anita Pallenberg).

Now to an expose over some of the outfits Jane Fonda manages to switch between during the most weird moments in the film:

The Band Wagon (1953)

The Band Wagon
Director: Vincente Minnelli
USA 1953
111 min
Starring: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan, among others.

Can you believe that I actually saw this film for the first time just yesterday? I have trouble believing that myself. Well, anyway I had to write something about this crazy Technicolor delight!

The year before The Band Wagon, Singin' in the Rain (1952) became a box-office success. There are some interesting likenesses between the two movies:

• Adolph Green and Betty Comden are the persons behind both the films' scripts.
• Both films take place in the world of entertainment during eras of extensive changes: Singin' in the Rain takes place in Hollywood during the change from silent films to talkies, The Band Wagon on the stage, where the audience now wants more than top hats and tap dancing.
• In both movies the first attempt of trying something new becomes a great failure, and only when the persons involved go for something they can and like does it become a success at a second attempt.

Now, do not misunderstand me: Both movies manages on their own, and The Band Wagon is not a blatant copy of Singin' in the Rain. Oh no. I just find comparisons very interesting. No that I finished that off, I can go on with the rest of the film!

The film begins with an auction, where the top hat of the once popular Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire's alter ego: his career was beginning to fade at this time) is sold on auction - no bidders. In the next scene we see a couple of men in a train discussing celebrities, and how they remember the glory days of Tony Hunter. Behind a newspaper is Tony Hunter himself, joining the discussion by stating that he wouldn't go to see Tony Hunter even if he was given $5 for the effort. (That is called self-distance, my friends.)

After having sung the sad "By Myself" (mostly sad because he looks so jolly while singing it) he meets his friends on the platform, the scriptwriting couple Lester and Lily Marton (Betty Comden and Adolph Green's alter egos) played by Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray. I instantly loved Fabray for her exploding energy, Jesus! Oh, and Ava Gardner makes a cameo!

That shoe shining routine is wonderful, but I can't see that it would have made it into a film today...

Lester and Lily has an idea for a Broadway show that they want Tony Hunter to star in to bring his career back on tracks. They also have a popular ballet dancer in mind, Gabrielle Gerard (Charisse, complete with her fabulous legs), and a famous director/actor by the name of Jeffrey Cordova (Buchanan). Cyd Charisse as a ballerina can only look right when wearing a dress red as sin.

I read somewhere that Cordova is a parody of Orson Welles, but I feel that he is a general spoof on all over ambitious directors. He is without a doubt the most hilarious character in the film, and the scene where he imagines Lester and Lily's play as a sort of modern interpretation of Faust is painfully hysterical.

Immediately when Tony and Gabrielle meet they get on the wrong foot with each other because of either ones insecurities if they can live up to the other one's talent. A little dance in Central Park later, they do however come to the conclusion that they can meet half ways and make it a success.

Cordova's Faust play becomes a huge failure as the audience look like they have had a seizure after leaving the theatre. The gang re-writes the whole thing, and the rest of the film contains of a series of entertaining song and dance numbers, including the famous and weird "Triplets" act.

But my absolute favorite scene in the entire film is, as anyone probably could guess, the film noir spoof "The Girl Hunt". It starts of in a black alley with a cool-as-ice Fred Astaire and a cynical narration. Out of nowhere a lady in distress pops out, some gang members beat him senseless and leaving clues behind them. And of course, Cyd Charisse as the femme fatale who is "selling hard, but I wasn't buying". Oh, can it get more perfect than this? Pure joy, all through the scene. Charisse must be Astaire's best dance partner after the Ginger Rogers era, such delight to watch.

I guess all this comes down to this: I adored this film after the first viewing. I will put it in my perfect-films-to-watch-when-I'm-sick-or-when-just-generally-feeling-sorry-for-myself-list, among Gone With the Wind and Singin' in the Rain. But the latter one is a little overused for the moment, I know everything in and out in that film. The Band Wagon simply gets to take it's place for a while.

Now - pic spam! (I want her legs!)

Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)

Cheaper by the Dozen

Director: Walter Lang

USA 1950

85 min

Starring: Myrna Loy, Clifton Webb and Jeanne Crain, among others.

Once again I had a different idea of the genre of the film before watching it, and therefore was quite shocked at how dramatic the movie actually turned out. I mean, look at the poster! Doesn't it all look jolly good, fine and dandy? Now, the shock wasn't as dramatic for me this time as when I watched Mrs. Miniver (1942) and expected a crazy screwball comedy about an eccentric British housewife (oh yeah, laugh at my silliness...) - Cheaper by the Dozen is a comedy, just a very sensible and realistic one, complete with the natural not-always-so-jolly-good ingredients of real life. And can there be a better way to adapt a novel based on a real life family with twelve children? (Well, Steve Martin certainly thought so in 2003... and again in 2005. The idea gives me horrible, horrible nightmares.)

So this is a real life story about a really big family in the 1920's. The father Frank Gilbreth (Webb) is an eccentric time and motion study and efficiency expert - something that comes in handy with scheduling the daily routines of such a large number of children.

Clifton Webb is of course a magnificent choice for such a part, and I regret that he didn't make a real entrance in the motion picture industry until his celebrated Oscar nomination performance as Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944). Two reasons for his less than sporadic appearances in film before that seems to be A) he worked a lot on the stage, and B) he was a homosexual, something that studio bosses and directors often were very uncomfortable with, and therefore thought twice before hiring him. (He almost didn't get the part in Laura because of it.)

The loving mother is played by the irreplaceable Myrna Loy, who in real life never got a child of her own. The casting choices for the parents of a dozen children is therefore very ironic and amusing - a gay man and a childless woman! And still I can't see anyone else playing their parts. (And really not Steve Martin.)

I absolutely adore that red-headed flapper à la Clara Bow to Jeanne Crain's right!

The oldest daughter, and narrator of the film, is called Ann (also beautifully cast part, Jeanne Crain). I don't really see why Ann should be the narrator, though - the original book was written by daughter Ernestine (played in the film by Barbara Bates, who we can see the same year as Eve's obsessive fan "Phoebe" in the last scene of All About Eve!) and son Frank Jr (Norman Ollestad). Anyway, that's about the only thing I could come up with as a complaint about the film - and not really worth mentioning. Cheaper by the Dozen is an adorable film, and I can't wait to see the sequel, Belles on Their Toes (1952).

One last little comment. What has happened when it comes to aging gracefully in today's Hollywood? It was so lovely to see a 45-year old Myrna Loy play a part her own age, and not covering up the wrinkles in her face with huge amounts of make up or botox. It seems like classic Hollywood actresses either started playing older parts when they couldn't play the young, foolish virgin anymore, or either dropped out of making movies (like Norma Shearer).

Well well, just needed to air my annoyed thoughts about women fearing to grow old. (See some perfect examples here...) Have some dignity, for crying out loud.

A journey from despair to hysteria

Just let me sleep it off...

Some movie recommendations from Elizabeth [Oh By Jingo! Oh By Gee!] caused me an emotional roller coaster yesterday. I know that I have a tendency to sink into the world of film, especially when I watch them alone and with a headset - there's nothing from the outside world that can reach me. But to go from inconsolable crying to almost choking to death with laughter (by now I sound like Jean Arthur) is something out of the ordinary, even for me. (Oh well, it doesn't happen every day...)

And for once, I will try to hold my promise to keep the blog post short. (Sure, no one has complained about them being too long, but personally I admire people who can express themselves in a short and concise way, and not, to directly translate a Swedish expression, "word poo".)

Mrs. Miniver

Director: William Wyler

USA 1942

134 min

Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Henry Travers, Dame May Whitty, Richard Ney and Henry Wilcoxon, among others.

See it on YouTube here.

When I am seriously curious about a film I haven't yet seen, I try to read as little about it as possible not to get it spoiled. Therefore I was quite shocked at finding Mrs. Miniver not being a sweet, cosy, utopian small town story (ey, I only judged by the title...), but rather a beautiful, smalltown nightmare. All the sweetness and sincere joy and appreciation for the fellow man only adds to the tragedy.

Mrs. Miniver (Garson) is the loving housewife of Clem Miniver (Pidgeon) in an English village anno 1939. The married couple's main problem by the beginning of the film is how to tell to one another that they both have too extravagant taste in their shopping for a middle class family (an expensive hat and a brand new car, guess who bought what), and their small children embarrassing the elder brother Vincent (Ney) and his love interest (Wright). This soon changes when Britain joins the World War II, and Vincent has to join the RAF, and Clem goes on a mission on the sea.

Just to further make this film crab ahold of the viewer, there is a sweet side story with a deer old station master, Mr. Ballard (Travers, who we recognize as the angel Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life, 1946), with a passion for roses. He names his most beautiful rose after Mrs. Miniver to enter the local flower contest. This makes it very hard to watch the scenes where the Germans start bombing England to pieces, not to mention the total loss of joy in the face of the otherwise so happy-go-lucky Vincent in the last scene. I frankly couldn't recognize him as the same actor at first.

Bombing of London, 1940.

This is such a beautiful and heart tearing film. Wyler admitted openly that he made the film for propaganda purposes, since he disliked America's isolationism from the ongoing war. The film helped the Americans to sympathize with their British equivalents. The last speech, held by Wilcoxon's vicar (supposedly re-written the night before shooting by Wyler and Wilcoxon), was used as war propaganda. It was translated into several languages and air-dropped in leaflets over Nazi occupied Europe on the request of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Since then, the speech has gone to history as The Wilcoxon Speech, after the actor who first performed it.

The final scene in a bombed church.

Well, in short this is a terrific film. Judging by my reaction (in total loss of hope, drowned in tears, inconsolable), I can be your witness that it's an emotionally gripping film. It got about a billion Oscar statues:

Best Actress in Leading Role - Greer Garson

Best Actress in Supporting Role - Teresa Wright

Best Cinematography B/W - Joseph Ruttenberg

Best Director - William Wyler

Best Picture

Best Writing, Screenplay

A popular rumor is that Greer Garson's acceptance speech lasted for over an hour, something that is completely wrong. She did however speak for five and a half minutes, and broke the record anyway.
Isn't it funny that Greer Garson later went and married Richard Ney, who plays her son in the film?

Yeah, grow a mustache so you look a little older!

Favorite scene: Mr. and Mrs. Miniver in the basement with their youngest children during an air raid. As most children do, they at first sleep through bombings and shootings, but when the bombs comes so near that the basement almost falls in on them, they wake up and are scared to death. There was something horrible in watching a helpless mother trying to keep her calm while comforting her children, who for once really has something to be frightened about.

***

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Director: Norman Z. McLeod

USA 1947

110 min

Starring: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, Fay Bainter, Ann Rutherford and Florence Bates, among others.

See it on YouTube here.

After "The Miniver Experience", I needed something to cheer me up before I went to bed. And now I made the right choice!

Walter Mitty (Kaye) is a terribly absent-minded man who too often lets himself slip away into an exciting dream world of his own, where he is the admired hero and has a beautiful, helpless blonde (Mayo) on his arm.

His reality is however somewhat different. His work contains of control reading trash novels with poorly dresses women in despair on the front covers. His boss constantly steals his ideas and takes the credit himself, and Mitty's frequent daydreaming puts his employment at stake. On top of all, he's engaged to a girl (Rutherford) with a horribly spoiled dog, and an equally horrible mother-in-law (Bates, who also plays an annoying mother-in-law in the Powell/Loy comedy Love Crazy, 1941).

One day his path crosses that of his dreamgirl's real life twin, Rosalind van Hoorn (Mayo, again), and soon he is drawn into a dime novel plot of his own - only with the difference that this is for real, and he can't just snap out of it like he can with his fantasies.

This is such a sweet, entertaining and insane movie. I can't believe that I hadn't seen it before, because it's exactly my kind of humour. I think I like Danny Kaye... Boris Karloff was really frightening in a role that kind of mocks his earlier horror performances. And I certainly admire how Virignia Mayo manages to act opposite Kaye and keep from laughing at lines like "Oh, Gaylord!". She should have been rewarded with some kind of reward for that.

By the way; I read on IMDb that Mike Myers is doing a remake of this film, probably finished in 2010. I don't usually like remakes, but if they are done as an homage to the original and with great respect it can be really interesting. And if there is one actor today that can do this role, I definitely think that Mike Myers is the one. I'm curious as heck!

Favorite scene: The dream sequence below. One of them, at least. It's so hard to decide, the whole film is totally hilarious.

Maria Montez (1912-1951)

When I look at myself, I am so beautiful I scream with joy!

Maria Montez

Maria Montez was a Dominican born American actress who became popular in the 1940's as an exotic beauty in a number of Technicolor adventure films. In her films she played the erotic Latin seductress, adorned with jewels and colorful veils, and became known as "The Queen of Technicolor" .

Maria Montez with three of her sisters.

Maria Montez was born Maria África Gracia Vidal (named after he father's native land, La Isla de la Palma, Spain in the African continent) in Dahoma, Dominican Republic, and was the second of ten children. At a young age she learn to speak English by reading magazines and books and watching American films. Already when she was a little child she wanted to become an actress, a goal that she would do everything to reach.
In 1932 she married an Irish banker in her native town, William McFeeters. They were married for seven years, but divorced when Maria went to New York, her beautiful and exotic looks giving her a job as a model.
Determined to become an actress she hired an agent that changed her year of birth to 1917, and sometimes 1918, to make her younger. Her first film offer was from Universal Pictures for a B western called Boss of Bullion (1940) starring Johnny Mack Brown.

Maria Montez and Jon Hall made six films together. Picture from 1944.

Her latin beauty soon landed more parts for her, Technicolor adventure films being popular during the WWII years when the public wanted to escape their tough realities. She starred in no less than six films with Jon Hall, the titles saying a lot of what kind of films we're talking about: Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), Cobra Woman (1944), Gypsy Wildcat (1944) and Sudan (1945).


Trailer for Arabian Nights (1942) starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Sabu.



Scene: Maria Montez's famous dance in Cobra Woman (1944).

While working in Hollywood Montez met and married french actor Jean-Pierre Aumont. Their wedding was held July 13th, 1943 (after Montez had consulted her astrologer about the chosen date) and they reportedly kissed each other 112 times during the ceremony. A few days later Aumont had to go to war.
During the war, pictures of Maria Montez covered the inside of many a soldier's lockers, alongside Rita Hayworth and Lana Turner.

Maria Montez and Jean-Pierre Aumont on their wedding day.

Montez and Aumont.

Montez and Aumont with their daughter (b. 1946), Tina Aumont.

By 1945 Montez had tired of being typecast in escapist films and B films, and refused to play in Universal's next project, Frontier Gal (1945). The role went to Yvonne DeCarlo, that alongside Maureen O'Hara became Universal's new film stars.
In February 1946 the couple had a daughter, Maria Christina (now more famous as a model under the name of Tina Aumont), and after that Montez moved to Paris with her husband, were they received a warm welcome by the French people. (Montez was the first American film star visiting France after WWII.)

On the cover of Movie Life magazine, January 1944.

Montez travelled to Italy and made some films there in the late 1940's, but as a great Hollywood star she had now faded.
At the age of only 39 Montez was found dead at her home in Paris September 7, 1951. She had suffered a heart attack and drowned in her bath tub.

Montez by a portrait of herself.


Other nicknames for Maria Montez:

Dominican Dynamite
Hollywood Syren
Tempestuous Montez
The Caribbean Cyclone