Worth 1,000 Words: JOLSON, RATOFF & DARNELL at Fox

July 11, 2010

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On the set of 1939’s HOTEL FOR WOMEN (20th Century Fox), featuring 16 year-old LINDA DARNELL in her first starring role, a sharply suited AL JOLSON visits both Darnell and her director, GREGORY RATOFF. Jolson had recently finished his own Fox film, ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE, in which he starred with Alice Faye and Tyrone Power. Both Rose and Hotel were directed by Ratoff. That chain leading to Ratoff’s right pocket might be connected to the infamous whistle he often blew for effect while directing. [from Steve Crum’s showbiz memorabilia collection]

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This was not the last time Linda Darnell (Oct. 16, 1923-April 10, 1965) worked with producer, director and actor Gregory Ratoff (April 20, 1897-Dec. 14, 1960).
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Ratoff was both director and scenario writer of 1939’s Rose of Washington Square. He was known for his eccentricity. During a scene in which Hobart Cavanaugh played a drunk in the balcony who heckled Jolson’s Ted Cotter on stage, Ratoff directed the entire sequence with his back turned. Ratoff explained why in his heavily Lithuanian accent: “That man Cavanaugh, he ees so funny, he makes me cry if I look at him.” Ratoff was not called “Gregory the Great” for nothing.
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Click on this link for one fantastic performance by NIGEL DREINER as he sings three Al Jolson songs live at the 2010 Jolson Convention in Milwaukee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU6imtu3D30
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Rethinking, recasting ‘Eclipse,’ a saga unto itself

July 6, 2010


By Steve Crum

Amazing what a screening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and eating linguini after 10 p.m. can conjure. That night was filled with a monaural, full blown Hollywood horror-romance story in vivid Black and White analog. Being a child during the 1950’s, I flashed back to simpler, Legion of Decency-driven days when rock and roll was just beginning to shake, and relatively bloodless monster movies ruled.

The inspired casting:

ELVIS PRESLEY……Edward Cullen (replacing Robert Pattinson)

NATALIE WOOD……Bella Swan (replacing Kristen Stewart)

STEVE “Hercules” REEVES……Jacob Black (replacing Taylor Lautner & pecs)

Between tossing and turning in my non-sleep-adjustable bed, the nightmarish scenario developed…

Bella (Natalie Wood, in her Splendor in the Grass period) once again finds herself surrounded by danger as the San Fernando Valley is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings as Tuesday Weld’s malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, Bella is forced to choose between her love for the loose hipped, guitar strumming blood sucker Edward Cullen (Elvis Presley, in his Jailhouse Rock days) and her friendship with an older, black bearded, and sublimely muscled older man, a werewolf in so many ways, Jacob Black (Steve Reeves), whose English is dubbed on the soundtrack. Bella must decide to either be with her avowed love Edward, and thus be transformed into a teenage vampire, or run with Jacob’s hairy pack of full moon rising werewolves. Either choice is a pain in the neck.

Meanwhile, a war is coming. It will be the vampirish Cullens teamed in an unholy alliance with Jacob’s band of wolf men versus a bunch of hungry, homeless, newborn vampires en route from Oakland. The newborns (Sal Mineo, Tab Hunter, Jamie Farr, Dennis Hopper, and Mercedes McCambridge among them) track the scent of Bella blood, while the Edward-Jacob alliance vows to protect their fair, air-headed, typically adolescent, and hormone inducing heroine.

The relationship between Bella and her two predatory boyfriends, Edward and Jacob, is more than a match. It is a cigarette lighter.

At this juncture, I woke up in heavy sweat, took a Tums, and turned on TV for return to normalcy. There was Taylor Lautner in a remake of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was Buffy, and topless! I turned off the set, and popped two more Tums.

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Worth 1,000 Words: CAGNEY & CO. salute ‘YOU’RE A GRAND OLD FLAG’

July 3, 2010


Filled with GEORGE M. COHAN’S patriotic songs, 1942’s YANKEE DOODLE DANDY includes a particularly rousing, stand-up-proudly-and-salute production number featuring a song Cohan wrote in 1906, YOU’RE A GRAND OLD FLAG. Contrary to what the movie says, Cohan was born the day before Independence Day, July 3 (1878). No matter. His unabashed Americanism and flag waving spirit is forever symbolic of the Fourth of July.


Cohan’s inspiration for writing the famous song is explained in the following Library of Congress statement: The original lyric for this perennial George M. Cohan favorite came, as Cohan later explained, from an encounter he had with a Civil War veteran who fought at Gettysburg. The two men found themselves next to each other and Cohan noticed the vet held a carefully folded but ragged old flag. The man reportedly then turned to Cohan and said, “She’s a grand old rag.” Cohan thought it was a great line and originally named his tune “You’re a Grand Old Rag.” So many groups and individuals objected to calling the flag a “rag,” however, that he “gave ’em what they wanted” and switched words, renaming the song “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”

Incidentally, You’re a Grand Old Flag was the first song from a musical to sell one million sheet music copies.
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You’re a grand old flag,
You’re a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You’re the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev’ry heart beats true
‘neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there’s never a boast or brag.
But should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.
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This movie still depicts James Cagney as George M., stage front, backed by dozens of flag wavers and his Yankee Doodle Dandy family, portrayed by (from left) real life sister Jeanne Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Rosemary DeCamp. Released at the beginning of WWII, the film won three Oscars, including Best Actor for James Cagney. [from Steve Crum’s showbiz memorabilia collection]
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Celebrate the Fourth of July by viewing the (colorized) most patriotic sequence ever filmed, YOU’RE A GRAND OLD FLAG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxZvDTnlvKM
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Worth 1,000 Words: JOLSON sings ‘SWANEE’ in ‘RHAPSODY IN BLUE’

June 28, 2010


Perhaps THE iconic moment from Warner Brothers 1945 musical biography of George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue, is Al Jolson singing Swanee. Written by Gershwin and Irving Caesar in 1919, the song was on the road to failure until Jolson stepped up, singing it in his Broadway hit, Sinbad. It was then associated with Jolie for the rest of his life.

 
Rhapsody in Blue stars Robert Alda (yes, Alan’s dad) as George, and features many Gershwin contemporaries playing themselves, including Paul Whiteman, whose orchestra premiered the symphonic Rhapsody in Blue; Oscar Levant, Gershwin’s friend who also did the piano solos for the film; George White, the producer of Broadway’s Scandals; Anne Brown, the original Bess of Gershwin’s folk opera, Porgy and Bess; and, of course, Jolson.
 
This is posted in honor of The International Al Jolson Society’s salute this week to Jolson’s memorable singing of Swanee in Rhapsody in Blue. That entire clip can be viewed now by visiting the Society’s impressive site at http://www.jolson.org/.
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The 11 x 14 lobby card shown is pretty rare, and unfortunately has its share of imperfections. (No Photoshop has been applied.) Still, it is a treasured part of my collection. Note that that the piece is colorized, that is, hand tinted. Jolie’s blackface and hands remain, per se, black and white–as is the movie. [from Steve Crum’s showbiz memorabilia collection]
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Douglas is terrific as self destructive ‘SOLITARY MAN’

June 25, 2010

By Steve Crum
It is so easy, so right in fact, to be repelled by Michael Douglas’ central character, Ben Kalmen, in Solitary Man. Here is a guy who treats people, including his own daughter, like the most sleazy, stereotypical used car salesman imaginable (and lo, he is a car salesman). Thanks particularly to smart dialogue and an Oscar worthy performance by Douglas, Solitary Man is a charismatic 90 minutes of drama as we observe a man determined to self destruct.

Co-directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien, along with Koppelman’s screenplay, effectively tell the rather uncomfortable tale beginning with a flashback to over six years back, when Kalmen receives a diagnosis of a possibly serious heart problem. At that time, he is a highly successful car dealer with several mid-town locations. Long married to soulmate Nancy (Susan Sarandon), he has a loving married daughter, Susan (Jenna Fischer of TV’s The Office), son-in-law, and grandchild. Kalmen is also a local media personality, having appeared on TV ads (“New York’s Honest Car Dealer”) for his upscale car dealerships, and he is a philanthropist of sorts. The library at his alma mater university is named after him due to his generous donations. That was then.

Since his medical scare, which he never follows up with treatment, Kalmen is hell bent on living, really re-living, his life. He pursues and beds virtually every young lady he sees, prompts his wife to divorce him, and gets involved in illegalities leading to the destruction of his auto dealerships. He serves jail time. He is a man figuratively off center, reeling and spiraling. Call it classic mid-life crisis or just trying to race death. Either way, 60 year-old Ben Kalmen’s life style has segued into smooth talking his way into board rooms and bedrooms. He is constantly broke, yet still appears to be on top of his game. He exudes confidence via a winning smile and sharp clothes, yet his demeanor is more plastic than ever. Michael Douglas played a similar, but more controlling weasel Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (1986).

Just when we are seduced into thinking Kalmen is back on track, he dupes us again. A telling sequence involves Kalmen going out of his way to escort his girlfriend Jordan’s daughter to interview with the dean of his old university and tour the campus. Jordan is played by Mary-Louise Parker, while Imogen Poots plays her daughter Allyson. Always looking for an angle, Kalmen befriends a sophomore, Daniel Cheston (Jesse Eisenberg), giving him tips on how to please women. Without divulging any more, just realize one thing leads to a more outrageous event, all triggered by Kalmen, which affect the remainder of the plot.

Look for Danny DeVito as an old college buddy Jimmy, now running his late dad’s off-campus malt shop, who factors into Kalmen’s return to his old campus life. No, Kalmen has not re-enrolled, he just partakes in every bar and frat party he can find. The non-partying, non-boozing Jimmy lends stability to Ben’s life, even letting him stay with him. Like Kalmen’s wife and daughter, Jimmy still cares enough to offer help.

Speaking of Ben’s daughter, there are a couple of dynamite scenes featuring Fischer’s Susan, whose love for him bottoms out as he repeatedly forsakes her and her son. There are terrific performances throughout Solitary Man, but Fischer and Douglas are particularly Oscar illuminated.

It is ironic that Grown Ups is also opening today. Whereas Grown Ups humorously explores a group of adult men pursuing their shared pasts in raucous, slapstick ways, Solitary Man travels the dark side. Ben Kalmen’s pursuit is self destructive, yet with a grim, pitiful humor that makes for one compelling movie.
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GRADE on an A to F Scale: B+
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Please watch the trailer to Solitary Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm95_LnjUJQ

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