Crum on Showbiz

By Steve Crum

After spending 109 minutes watching The Lighthouse, the film’s message persists: “It’s bad luck to kill a seabird!” I so believe it now, as it is uttered early in the movie by Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). Wake’s warning to Robert Pattinson’s Ephraim Winslow tragically goes unheeded. 

Directed and co-written by Robert Eggers (along with co-writer/brother Max), The Lighthouse is a highly original but grim motion picture on several levels. This psychological horror drama, released last October, is jammed with nightmarish imagery and tour de force acting (Dafoe and Pattinson are its only two actors). Both actors perform awesomely. 

Besides the actors, there are enough auditory devices to fill several films. I speak of surround sound effects such as seagulls, heavy rain, and the damned foghorn that nearly affected me as much as it does the pitiful Winslow character. Both he and Wake are lighthouse keepers, arriving at the story’s opening to replace two others we see departing. The job calls for four weeks tending the remote lighthouse, whereupon they will be replaced. It is telling that neither duo says anything to the other as they pass by. Not even  a nod or gesture. 

Once settled in, it becomes clear these two are total strangers who now have to work together for a month. The emphasis here is the “strange” in strangers. Dafoe’s older, bearded Wake immediately takes charge as sole keeper of the lighthouse, while delegating all menial labor chores to Pattinson’s Winslow.  To make it worse, his hard work is repeatedly criticized by his new boss. Wake repeatedly orders that the floor scrubbing be done over and over. He is rarely satisfied with the results. It does not take long before Winslow revolts at his slave labor treatment.

Four months into their job, Winslow is still not permitted to even step into the beacon tier of the lighthouse. Wake keeps it locked tight. 

All this said, and without divulging more plot development, things hit the proverbial fan when their relief ship fails to show up with replacements. By that time, their booze-filled world of isolation is compounded by a terroristic seagull, bloody water, and a scary mermaid. 

This study in paranoia, terror and insanity is somewhat adapted from the unfinished short story, The Light-House, by Edgar Allen Poe.

Mention must be made that it was shot in gorgeous black-and-white, enhancing the atmosphere. And it is not in widescreen. Realizing the movie is set in the late 19th Century, let us hope the pandemic quarantine we are all going through now never results in what occurs in The Lighthouse. 

Plaudits to Jarin Blaschke’s stunning cinematography, which was Oscar nominated earlier this year. 

The wild finale brought to mind three classic films: Kiss Me Deadly (1955), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and The Birds (1963). See The Lighthouse to believe it. 

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GRADE, On A to F Scale: A-

By Steve Crum

Back in the old days—during my youth in the 1950s, a movie like Bombshell would be touted in newspaper ads and movie trailers with such terms as “SENSATIONAL” or “RIPPED FROM TODAY’S HEADLINES.” Bombshell, released in 2019, is definitely worthy of that ilk. 

I have watched this factually-based movie twice, and still have trouble distinguishing between all three blonde women characters. This is particularly troubling during the first quarter of the film, before each Fox News character/bimbo is more clearly defined. The hodgepodge mix of cookie-cutter female images—all about body sexuality—really confuses.

In that regard, Charles Randolph’s screenplay includes a sequence set in the dressing room at Fox News. Dozens of matching blue and red dresses are on racks for female commentators to wear on air. Of course, sizes vary—slightly, but each is equally styled with shortened hemlines. That is because Roger Ailes, network chairman and CEO, has ordered such so. That is repeatedly stressed on numerous occasions in Bombshell when Ailes (John Lithgow in fat makeup) references female employees’ legs…and the necessary need to show as much gam as possible during a broadcast. To Ailes, according to the movie and in real life, any woman is a sex object—particularly young blondes.

Incidentally, that Fox News look includes/included a kind of Stepford Wives blonde hair persona.

Bombshell really chronicles the beginning of the Me Too movement when two female Fox broadcasters, Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) begin pushing back against not only Ailes but President Donald Trump. Trump was tweeting rude and sexist remarks about Kelly because of her questioning his insulting remarks about women during the 2016 Republican debate. 

About the same time, Carlson was fired by Ailes because of her on-air support of an assault weapons ban. She countered by suing Ailes for sexual assault.  

Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers movies) does a fine job in navigating the criss-crossing story lines. The third major thread involves a current, upwardly mobile wannabe newscaster who succumbs to Roger Ailes’ tried and true sexual assault methods. That means the old casting couch method behind closed doors in his office. Margot Robbie portrays Kayla Pospisil, the assaulted. The sequences are not graphic, but suggestive. 

Incidentally, Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon is a plus in the cast, portraying composite character Fox News writer Jess Carr.  

I am not giving away a spoiler to remind everyone that Roger Ailes eventually resigned because of 23 lawsuits against his reputed sexual crimes; and his lecherous ways are a major part of Bombshell’s central conflict. He had ruled at Fox News for 20 years. 

Although it may seem otherwise, I am not sure that Lithgow is playing the infamous lout over the top at all. Seems incredibly credible, folks.

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GRADE, On A to F Scale: B-

By Steve Crum

Question: Has it really been 25 years since the first Toy Story movie was released?

Answer: Yup. (Incidentally, that cowboy language “yup” is nowhere near the King’s English spoken by the film’s main character, Woody, the cowboy doll. Tom Hanks has voiced him since the beginning.)

Since Toy Story 4, directed by Josh Cooley, was released last June, fans and critics have once again gushed over every aspect of the CGI animated gem. It was no surprise that it soon won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It is doubly an accomplishment since after the first Toy Story in 1995, plans were shelved to produce Toy Story 2 to theaters. Execs thought it better/safer to release it in direct-to-DVD form. But they gambled, and won. The second Toy Story was a sensation that led to Toy Story 3 and now #4. 

And what sensation exists in Toy Story 4! 

The screenplay, by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom, takes up where 2010’s Toy Story 3 left off. Bo Peep (voiced by Annie Potts) and her close friend Woody are rescuing the human Andy’s remote-controlled car. Segue into a major catastrophe as Bo herself is donated to a new owner. Woody is crushed because he has been in love with Bo forever—or at least in maximum doll years. Jump to years later when Andy is a young man, and all his toys are given to a little girl, Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw). 

Enough of early plot details! Just realize that in the midst of Woody and his toy buddies (Rex, Hamm, Slinky Dog, and Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head among them) adapting to a new environment, a major plot change occurs. It involves a reunion of Woody with Bo Peep, a carnival, and some very creepy toys therein. 

But the most memorable of all the new characters is a simply created toy, a plastic fork, called “Forky” (Tony Hale). Forky has proven to be so popular that Pixar has already created a Forky CGI short. 

TS4 was supposedly the grand finale of the franchise. But, hey, money speaks. Even Tim Allen (the voice of Buzz Lightyear) has recently said that Toy Story 5 is a possibility. The public demand is undoubtedly there. Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures will have to decide. 

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GRADE, On A to F Scale: A

On the occasion of what would have been Alfred Hitchcock’s 100th birthday in 1999, I wrote this vignette about the great director’s cameo appearances in his films. This is a reprinting of my Crum on Film column that ran in The Kansas City Kansan newspaper on Aug. 20, 1999. Hitch died April 29, 1980 at 80.   

By Steve Crum

How appropriate that the great late director Alfred Hitchcock’s 100th birthday fell on Friday the 13th last week. The “Master of Suspense” must have had a hand—or at least his silhouette—in the planning. It is just too coincidental otherwise. After all, the genius behind Psycho and The Birds was meticulous about every detail in filming, including the publicity angles. 

Hitch was also the most well known and recognizable of any film director in history. Thanks to his decade-running TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, wherein he memorably introduced and closed each episode, Hitchcock became one of the world’s premier personalities.

Beginning with The Lodger in 1926, in which he subbed for an extra, Hitchcock was both flattered and increasingly bothered that fans looked for his brief appearance in virtually every film thereafter. Rightfully concerned that audiences might be distracted from the movie itself, Hitchcock tried to include his seconds long bit early in the movie. Hitchcock fans, of course, love his movies. That includes trying to spot his cameos. Selected Alfred Hitchcock movie appearances follow, so look fast.

•THE LODGER (1926)—Hitch appears twice: at a newsroom desk and later as a crowd member who is watching an arrest.

•THE 39 STEPS (1935)—Seven minutes into the film, look for him throwing away some trash as Robert Donat and Lucie Mannheim run from the theater.

•THE LADY VANISHES (1938)—Near the end of the movie, in Victoria Station, he wears a black coat as he smokes a cigarette.

•MR AND MRS. SMITH (1941)—He passes Robert Montgomery in front of his building.

•SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943)—Hitchcock plays cards on the train to Santa Rosa.

•LIFEBOAT (1942)—A tricky appearance, since the entire film takes place in lifeboat on the Atlantic Ocean. William Bendix looks at a newspaper that shows Hitchcock in a “before” and “after” weight loss ad for the Reduco Obesity Slayer. 

•STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)—As Farley Granger gets off the train, guess who boards the train, carrying a double bass fiddle?

•DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954)—Thirteen minutes into the film, zero in on the left side of the class reunion photo.

•REAR WINDOW (1954)—Hitch winds the clock in the songwriter’s apartment that Jimmy Stewart is observing through his binoculars. That happens about 30 minutes into the movie. 

•TO CATCH A THIEF (1955)—He sits to Cary Grant’s left (10 minutes in). 

•THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (1955)—Twenty minutes into the flick, Hitch walks past the parked limo of an old man who looks at paintings. 

•THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956)—Just before the murder in the Moroccan marketplace, he watches acrobats—his back to the camera.

•THE WRONG MAN (1956)—He narrates the prologue.

•VERTIGO (1958)—Eleven minutes in, he walks the street in a gray suit.

•NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)—He misses a bus during the opening credits.

•PSYCHO (1960)—Look for him four minutes into the film, through Janet Leigh’s window when she returns to her office. Hitch wears a cowboy hat.

•THE BIRDS (1963)—As Tippi Hedren enters a pet shop, he leaves with two white terriers on his leash.

•MARNIE (1964)—He enters from the left of the hotel corridor, five minutes into the flick, as Hedren passes by. 

•FAMILY PLOT (1976)—Hitchcock’s last movie and last movie appearance: he is in silhouette through the door of the Registrar of Births and Deaths (41 minutes in).

∞∞∞∞∞

Just an added trivia goodie: Hitchcock’s only cameo appearance in one of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV shows is in “A Dip in the Pool.” His photo is on the cover of a magazine someone is reading. It aired June 1, 1958. 

It turns out that the late Roy Rogers, “The King of the Cowboys,” had a link to Kansas City, Kansas. My coverage of that tie-in was originally published in The Kansas City Kansan (Crum on Film) on Aug. 25, 2000. Since then, the Rogers museum in Victorville, California has closed…as has his transplanted museum in Branson, Missouri. 

By Steve Crum

The legend of Roy Rogers continues. The two years following this great singing cowboy’s death have only positively affected the heartfelt wholesome, All-American persona of the man who will forever be King of the Cowboys. Fans of Roy Rogers—like yours truly—are fans for life. Thanks to TV and movies, and especially the video copies thereof, he will forever live. 

The Cincinnati boy who was born Leonard Franklin Slye became a heroic icon during the early 1940s when the then Republic Pictures top cowboy star Gene Autry left the studio for armed forces service in World War II. A name change from Slye to Dick Weston was soon replaced with Roy Rogers, and a new king was in the saddle. That was a few years before he rode off into the sunset to Kansas City, Kansas. Sorry pards, ah’m gittin’ ahead of myself. 

From 1935-98, Roy Rogers made 116 movies, which is staggering even realizing many of the “features” he made at Republic average 60 minutes in length. Then there was The Roy Rogers Show on TV in the early 1950s, after Republic had folded. Let us not forget his terrific co-starring role with Bob Hope in 1952’s Son of Paleface. Seven years later was that Hope comedy-western in which Roy made a memorable cameo appearance, Alias Jesse James. His scene is toward the end when he appears out of nowhere to help star Hope’s character fight the bad guys. Rogers levels his pistol at a varmint about to shoot Hope. He fires and connects, commenting, “And happy trails to you!” It is a perfect zinger from the hero of heroes. 

About the time Alias Jesse James was released, Roy Rogers moseyed into Kansas City, Kansas. He and his entourage were appearing somewhere in Greater Kansas City—undoubtedly singing (exact details unknown)—and staying at the gone-but-never-forgotten Town House Hotel in downtown KCK. It was then, in the late afternoon, that Jackie Heffley got a phone call. She and her late husband Rex ran the Ranch Bowl (bowling alley, that is) at 5604 State Ave. 

“One of Roy’s men called, telling me that Roy and and his friends were wanting to rent the bowling alley after midnight.” She does not remember the exact date, but does recall that the voice said that Roy wanted to “unwind by bowling,” and would privately bowl for a couple of hours. The Heffleys were stunned, but immediately agreed to the arrangements.

“Roy and 67 other men came down and bowled a couple of hours,” Jackie said. “The had a good time.”

Was Roy Rogers a good bowler? Jackie said that she really does not know how he bowled that early morning. She just gave him the privacy he desired, treating him like any other bowling customer. “He was a very congenial, earthy person.” 

Autographs or pictures with Roy? “No, we didn’t even think of pictures at all,” she said. “But he did autograph two plastic bowling pin banks we had there.” Did he bring his own bowling shoes? “Yes.” (I refrained from asking if his shoes had spurs.)  Was Trigger or Dale Evans with him? “No.”

Jackie said that years later she realized just how much important bowling was to Rogers when she and her family toured his Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville, California. “There is an entire section devoted to Roy’s bowling trophies, team pictures and awards. He was a huge bowling fan, and was for years a Victorville Bowling Team member. 

(UPDATE: The very aptly named Ranch Bowl was demolished in 2018. See photo.)

So the legend continues, and a King of the Keglers emerges. Happy strikes to you until we bowl again. 

Yeah, I know—spare me.