Very simple. Effective. Empathetic to kids. Two of them want to shag, she's poor, he's rich. He dumps her to get a root she goes mad. Her mother worries about her virginity but um that doesn't drive you mad. To be fair the film doesn't say that. The depression equals them all.
Inge was a good script writer. He should've written the adaptation of A Loss of Roses. But... casting essentia. That and this needed two leads who are perfect.
Read this because Warren Beatty debuted. It's a simple story - maybe too simple for a play though it would work for a film. An older actress moves in with a woman and her son, who is a young man. The mother apparently is a bit hot for the sun though that's not clear. The woman is a stock type written by gay male playwrights of this era - ageing beauty who's been around the block, emotionally unstable. The son roots her, then won't marry her so she tries to kill herself - this is all rushed through.
It would work as a star vehicle for the young man and the actress. The mother part doesn't quite click. This version I read is different from what was on Broadway.
Am reading Barry Diller’s excellent memoirs which discuss his time running Paramount in the 1970s which made me decide to compare his regime with the fabled Robert Evans regime that proceeded it. (These lists below attribute films to various regimes as well as I can... it's entirely possible some started development under other regimes)
So films from the Evans regime which film bros (deservedly) always bang on about...
Love Story, The Godfather Part 1 and 2, Harold and Maude, A New Leaf, Willy Wonka, Play It Again Sam, Lady Sings the Blues, Paper Moon, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Serpico, The Conversation, Daisy Miller, The Parallax View, Chinatown, Death Wish, The Longest Yard, Three Days of the Condor, Hustle, Italian Job, Medium Cool, True Grit, Goodbye Columbus, Rosemary’s Baby, The Odd Couple, Romeo and Juliet, Barbrella, if..., Oh what a Lovely War, Downhill Racer.
Great stuff.
But films from Evans regime which film bros forget he made (or blame on Charlie Bludhorn)...
The Molly Maguires, The Adventurers, Darling Lili, Friends, Little Fauss and Big Haley, Norwood, a weirdly large number of flop Neil Simon adaptations (Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Star Spangled Bannered Girl), Murphy’s Law, TR Baskin, Such Good Friends, Bad Company, The N***** Charley Films, Save the Children, Sterile Cuckoo, Hello Down There, My Side of the Mountain, Where’s Jack, Blue, No Way to Treat a Lady, 5 Card Stud, Skidoo, The Brotherhood, A Talent for Loving, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Scalawag, The White Dawn, Paint Your Wagon.
Not so great stuff. You just don't hear Peter Bart go one about these as much.
Films from the Diller regime which film bros go on about:
Saturday Night Fever, Bad News Bears, Marthon Man, King Kong, Mikey and Nicky (in its own way), Looking for Mr Goodbar, Saturday Night Fever, Pretty Baby, Grease 1 and 2, Heaven Can Wait, Foul Play, Days of Heaven, Up in Smoke, The Warriors, Escape from Alcatraz, Meatballs, North Dallas Forty, Star Trek 1 and 2, American Gigolo, Friday the 13th series, Urban Cowboy, Flying High 1 and 2, Ordinary People, Popeye, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, Mommie Dearest, An Officer and.a Gentleman, 48 Hours, White Dog, Flashdance, Trading Places, Terms of Endearment, Uncommon Valor, The Keep, Footloose, Top Secret, Beverly Hills Cop, Witness.
Again, a great line up of films.
But there are films from the Diller regime which seem to be forgotten:
Won Ton Ton the Dog That Saved Hollywood, Lifeguard, Handle with Care, First Love, The One and Only, Going South, Oliver's Story, An Almost Perfect Affair, Prophecy, Bloodline, Sunburn, French Postcards, Nijinsky, Rough Cut, The Hunter, Coast to Coast, Going Ape, Dragonslayer, First Monday in October, Paternity, Ragtime, I’m Dancing as Far as I Can, Some Kind of Hero, Partners, Jekyll and Hyde Together Again, It Came from Hollywood, Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Racing with the Moon, Best Defence, River Rat, Thief of Hearts, Falling in Love, King David, Rustlers Rhapsody, Compromising Positions.
Don't forget the flops, that's all I'm saying.
Okay enough time has passed (arguably) to do a Gene Hackman top ten. Everyone knows the actual good movies so I thought I'd do my top ten weird Gene Hackman movies.
Wasson comes up with a fresh take on Coppola, focusing on the American Zoetrope story, with two main areas - the early 70s period before The Godfather and the early 80s which saw One from the Heart . Most emphasis is on the latter, which its dazzling ambition, waste of money, idealism, randomness - Gene Kelly mixing it with Michael Powell, Paul Schrader, Michael Lehman and so on.
Doesn't spend a lot of time on Godfather, thank goodness, but a bit on Apocalypse Now. Puts Megalopolis in more context - I get it more now and am even looking forward to it (with some apprehension).
Coppola's record at supporting talent and trying new things is quite remarkable even if he did go a little insane I think. Fascinating book.
I'm not a big Streisand head but have no particularly strong feelings about her. This book is very good though. Well written, enjoyable. Feels "her". Strong willed, eccentric, passionate. She's copped a lot of bad press over the years but from men trying to punish her. Arthur Laurents and Garson Kanin struggled to direct her with their "set and forget" methods. She had better luck with people like Jerome Robbins, William Wyler, and Peter Bogdanovich, people who challenged her. Did badly with weaker directors like Gene Kelly, Frank Pierson.
She writes affectionately of Elliot Gould which I liked - they had issues (he was partial to marijuana, jealousy and had a gambling habit) but was basically supportive. Also she has a lot of time for most of her exes: Ryan O'Neal, Geoge Lazenby (! - it was just a flirtation during On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), Kris Kristofferson, Warren Beatty (who she's not sure if she slept with), Pierre Trudeau, Omar Sharif, Anthony Newley (I didn't know that). Isn't nice about Sydney Chaplin who she had an affair with then called off and he behaved badly (Walter Matthau was a mate of his, hence his bad attitude on Hello Dolly). Likes most of her co stars even if she didn't fall in love with them (she was a method actress that way) - eg James Caan. She adored Brando and they had a friendship but not an affair (I don't think).
Full of "gee I wish you'd done that" moments- she should've turned director on A Star is Born, should've made Merry Widow with Ingmar Bergman
She's ambivalent about Sue Menges (says Menges begged her to be in All Night Long), Jon Peters.
Particularly fascinating accounts of her musicals and movies especially The Way We Were (admits to not remembering much about For Pete's Sake). Also deep dives her albums and TV specials.
Lots of good juice like Arthur Laurents sending her a mean letter after her first album - but she also liked him because of The Way We Were; Mandy Patinkin demanding to have an affair; Complex descriptions of Ray Stark, Sydney Pollack
There's a bit too much about clothes and blocking of scenes. And the last few chapters are really grim - the Clintons, politicis, philanthropy, her 21st century career. But def read the first bit.
Lowe's first book was a pleasant surprise, raising the bar for this second effort. It's well written with some interesting stuff - profiles of Bernie Brillstein, accounts of the flop shows he worked on (he blames the writing), doing A Few Good Men in London, some of his acting tips, an encounter with Warren Beatty. This is all fine. Other stuff was less interesting. Can be annoyingly chipper and you can sense the narcissist there (which to be fair Lowe cops). Frustratingly hinty about some gold - refers to a torrid sexual encounter with "a female Oscar winner" (Faye Dunaway? Sally Field? ) and being ripped off on a surprise hit (Wayne's World? Tommy Boy?). Not bad. Lowe's a good writer. I'll be honest - I was hoping for more encounters with the rich and famous, though.
A film that has much in common with Hud - Brandon de Wilde hero worshipping a no good womaniser pants man played by an Actors Studio superstar (Warren Beatty here instead of Paul Newman), a woman who's been around but is still attracted to the lout (Eva Marie Saint instead of Patricia Neal), small town setting (mid west as opposed to Texas), director who came up via TV (John Frankenheimer rather than Martin Ritt), black and white photography, gruff paterfamilias (Karl Malden rather than Melvyn Douglas).
There are key differences. This was mostly shot in studio not location so doesn't have Hud's excellent sense of place, which it needs (it was Frankenheimer's one big regret for making the movie and he was right). There's a mother here, Angela Lansbury. It also feels more, well, gay, as written by William Inge, with everyone panting heavily over Beatty - not one but two middle aged women meet him and go off with him after a few minutes, and so does Eva Marie Saint. Does that actually happen in the straight world? Maybe it does. There's also the domineering mother, a weak drunk father, a beautiful young boy.
Warren Beatty is very charismatic and pretty. He didn't often play such cads - helpless man children were more his stock in trade. Maybe he should've played more cads.
Brandon de Wilde is bland. He was in a lot of good movies for a bland actor - I think the eyes were useful.
The film doesn't really get going until Beatty arrives and it's one hour in. The story is simple - basically he knocks up Saint and flips out, she flips out and crashes and that's it. The film doesn't quite nail de Wilde's love for Beatty or fix its point of view.
1. Michael Parks - played broody enigmatic loner in Bus Riley's Back in Town
2.Paul Newman - took Dean's part in Somebody Up There Likes Me
3. Christopher Jones - very Dean style in films like Wild in the Streets
4. Tab Hunter - under contract to Warners... more a nice young man that Dean's moody people
5. Troy Donahue - soulful man in a series of 60s films at Warners
6. Warren Beatty - discovered by Elia Kazan in a Dean style role
7. Robert Wagner - don't laugh - played Dean role in True Story of Jess James
8. Elvis Presley - occasionally went into Dean territory eg King Creole
9. Nick Adams (not Dennis Hopper) - copied Dean
10. Dean Stockwell - Dean style actor in Compulsion
A great idea - a look at the making of the five films nominated for Best Picture in 1967, the birth of the New Hollywood. It helps all the films were all so different - Dr Doolittle, old school Fox musical yet also New Hollywood in a way because it was bloated in a post Sound of Music Way; In the Heat of the Night, which is a race movie so they can explore Sidney Poitier's career; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner which is also race but had Tracy and Hepburn; The Graduate, which is a youth movie; Bonnie and Clyde, a fresh take on an old genre that led to a major passing of the guard among critics.
The people involved play up their struggles as most Hollywood story tellers do ("I was down and out", "no one thought we'd be successful", "It was my last chance"). Dustin Hoffman pinched Katherine Ross' arse during rehearsals "to get a reaction"... talk about a red flag.
I wound up having surprising respect for Stanley Kramer sticking to his bland vision for Dinner.
Could you tell a story about years in Australian cinema? Not really the same. Maybe 1975.
Fabulous book. Definitive. Nichols was a major player - this book captures it. The background, the upbringing, the college years (he could be mean - not surprised), comedy with Elaine May, straight acting, adventures as a director, early films, incredible success, great disappointment, exotic love life, terrible fathering (at first... he got better), finding his groove as a film director again, compulsive spending, addictions to drugs at a late age.
I was familiar with a lot of the hits - The Graduate, Virginia Woolf - but it was great to read about the disappointments - Day of the Dolphin, The Fortune, Fools. The theatre stuff is gripping. People seem to have really loved him. But he couldn't do everything as those who've seen The Fortune can attest.
A magnificent book.
Warren Beatty's last film, perhaps, which would be a shame. I know he was working on a Howard Hughes movie since the 1970s. This was what he came up with?
There is a movie to be had in focusing on the women that Hughes stashed away. He only focuses on one, played by Lily Collins, who doesn't seem to be that big chested (I don't mean to be gross but that was such an overwhelming thing for Hughes). Then his attention drifts to one of Hughes' drivers. Collins drops out of the movie for a big slab of time.
Neither are that interesting. Many of the scenes are repetitive or flat - she's not a good driver, they have a religious upbringing, Annette Bening is Collins' worried mother.
It's fun to see people like Ed Harris and Amy Madigan in the movie, as well as Steve Coogan, Candice Bergen, etc. It was just a bit dull. Hughes was eccentric and odd. The two leads weren't that engaging.
The best bit came at the end when Hughes is on the phone to prove is sanity with his young son running around in front of him. This was quite moving. Hughes pulls focus from the young lovers. But he's not that engaging either. It was just dull.
I'm conflicted. I appreciated it being a film for grown ups, some of the political satire was sharp, like the jabs at the insurance industry. It did predict the appeal of the "outsider" galvanising things - like Sanders and Trump. Mind you, it wasn't the first movie to cover that ground eg The Candidate, Face in the Cword.
But so much was annoying. The lib-splaining, the age gap between Beatty and Halle Berry (I don't care if they make a joke out of it, why couldn't Pam Grier or someone have played this? I know the answer, but she should have), the moment where Berry goes to Beatty "you're my n*gger" (yikes), all the lecturing, the martyrdom, the homeless man telling us to live up to Bulworth's spirit..
Dramatically the big problem was the lack of connect between Bulworth/Beatty and the audience. At the beginning of the film he's having a break down and arranges for his own execution - fine. Then he continues to have a melt down, and is running around, and rapping, and dressed in a beanie, and being weird and it doesn't make sense, in part because we've got nothing to contrast him with. Only at the end when he starts acting like a regular person does he seem real. I mean, what does Bulworth truly believe? What did he believe? He's distant from the audience, hiding behind is breakdown. We never meet his daughter, his wife is a caricature.
Strong support cast including Oliver Platt (whose cocaine fuelled rants feel written by Aaron Sorkin but I could be wrong), Will Bailey, Jack Weston, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino, Christine Baraski, etc.
Absolutely competent remake from Warren Beatty. It's fine. It doesn't break new ground in the way Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo and Reds did but it provides an enjoyable experience.
If helps that Beatty used to play football and was just (I stress "just") young enough to believably play him on screen. The role is in his wheelhouse - befuddled anxious man in over his head.
There's an excellent support cast. Charles Grodin and Dyan Cannon are brilliant in the stand out, showiest parts. James Mason and Buck Henry are entertaining angels, and Jack Weston provides heart (when he loses his mate a second time at the end it's very moving).
The least effective for me was Julie Christie. I was put off by her perm, I admit. She doesn't have much of a role. I will say I loved her final scene with Beatty - that ending section was the best part of the film.
Some script questions from me - more impact stuff. What about Tom's existing family and friends? What about the impact of Joe's death on the team? And Vincent Gardenia's cop character took over too much at the end for a character we don't meet until late.
But charming and pleasant in the way Town and Country and Love Affair weren't.
I didn't like this when I first saw it but I was too young and the film was on TV and had been censored so I was unclear about some things, like how Julie Christie shocked the guests at the part and what Warren Beatty did with Carrie Fisher (did he take a dump?) but as time has passed I appreciate more and can see how good it is.
I don't think it reinvented the wheel - it took a very very old restoration comedy (the rooster in the henhouse) and gave it a new sheen, with Hal Ashby's low key direction, Robert Towne's witty script (I know Beatty is credited as co writer, I just feel he's more an editor and credit hog), perfect cast, fresh set up (male hairdresser in Beverly Hills), and Warren Beatty in the most perfectly cast role of his career. By the late 80s he would be too old for these roles but he is utterly at home in the mid 70s and it has an added tang knowing he co starred against so many ex-girlfriends.
Beatty plays a super stud who drives around Beverly Hills on a motorbike, sleeps with all these women, is great at his job... but it's also reassuring because he's a mess at business (he can't get a loan to start his own shop), he is longing for Julie Christie who he can get but not permanently, and his life is a mess. The women have sexual drive for him - Beatty was most effective as a hapless lust object pursued by strong women and in over his head amongst the world.
Goldie Hawn is charming as is actress girlfriend, Julie Christie is fascinating as his true love (no great catch in a way, with a drinking problem, and a disdain for hard work, but very charismatic), Jack Warden is imposing as the affable but tough businessman, Lee Grant is electric as Warden's wife, Jay Robinson effective as the salon owner, and Carrie Fisher makes a smash debut as the precocious teen (smart beyond her years but not as smart as she thinks she is). The only really dud one is Tony Bill in what is admittedly a thankless part as the director keen on Hawn.
The music is excellent, as is Ashby's direction. It lost a little pace in between parties for some reason - I'm sure it's structural.
Famous flop which on paper sounded as sure fire as anything in the mid 70s- Beatty, Nichols, Nicholson, the writer of Five Easy Pieces... with an exciting new star Stockard Channing. Where some bumbling con men kidnap an heiress in the 1920s. Sounds fun.
But it's not. They don't kidnap her, not really, she goes willingly because she's in love with Beatty and has to marry Jack Nicholson and Nicholson wants to bang her. The action is stretched over a long period - it seems like ages - when farces work better over a compressed period of time.
I was never sure what the goals of the characters were. To have sex? Make money? Why not just re-do Ransom of the Red Chief (like Ruthless People did). I couldn't tell the character differential between Beatty and Nicholson.
They don't use Channing's father and under-use Beatty's wife. Doing farce and comedy is hard - Carole Eastman doesn't do it (I know her script was rewritten). Mike Nichols' careful, classic direction lacks pace.
It's a really boring movie. It's not even attractive - most of it is shot in this dusty, deserty area.
I'm still wrapping my head around Warren Beatty's career - it's so random. After Bonnie and Clyde he made a disaster (The Only Game in Town) and a film that seemed to disappear ($) then two of the cultiest movies of the seventies: McCabe and Mrs Miller and this.
It's an astonishingly shot movie - Gordon Willis does a sensational job with unusual framing, use of shadow and light, long shots. The film is constantly off kilter and unsettling. (Kudos to the art department as well).
Gorgeous "tinkle music" score. Very very strong cast - Beatty's shaggy haired reporter in over his head is actually in line with his most effective screen persona: man who is slightly hapless. He's still a stud muffin - Prentiss is his ex and he's got some woman staying over early on who is never seen again.
Paula Prentiss scores in her small role as does everyone else really: Hume Cronyn, Jim Davis (craggy, smoking senator), William Daniels, Kenneth Mars.
The car chase feels dumbly inserted. The ending is amazing. The plot makes no sense if looked at too closely. But it works.
In many ways a traditional Western - a gunslinger hero who stands up to bullies, a hooker with a heart of gold, three badmen coming into town in high noon, the gunslinger kills them all, brothel and mining, the baddies are a mining company, the slimy saloon owner.
It does provide a fresh take - the gunslinger is blustery and spends the last half trying to avoid a fight, the hooker is mercenary and the gunslinger always has to pay her (and she's hooked on opium), it's set in the snow, the mining company sends some harrassed middle tier executives.
It's beautifully shot and lit (it takes some getting used to but is worth it), the Leonard Cohen songs work a treat. The villains are superb - especially the imposing Brit (what a baddie!) and the psychotic kid who wastes Keith Carradine for no reason (the "half breed" doesn't get a showy moment).
It takes a while - two hours - but works on it's own terms. By making a genre piece Altman is restrained - he can bring his magic to an existing form.
