Brando, Lloyd, Nicholson, Connery and Bogart - check out these classics: The Maltese Falcon, Goldfinger, On the Waterfront

I want to be clear: I LOVE libraries, what a great community meeting place, and a great source for free stuff: books, music, classes, and movies, especially movies. So, I really try not to get too upset when I get DVD that looks like someone took a scouring pad to it or ate peanut butter from it. Three movies in this review were problematic and two more were so bad, I couldn't even watcth them. ARGH, I was excited to watch In The Heat of the Night, and mildly interested in seeing It's a Wonderful Life (I have seen it years ago, and I know it's on television during the holidays, but I wanted to watch it on my time and without commercials), but the DVDs would not play. Maybe next time. I would ask that if you borrow DVDs or CDs or even old fashioned books from the library, please take care of them; just because they are free, doesn't mean they can be mistreated. They are for all of us. Cheers and happy watching.

12/23/15 On the Waterfront, Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Story and Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction - B&W, Best Cinematography - B&W, Best Film Editing, 1955 #8, AFI, National Film Registry

On the Waterfront won EIGHT Oscars in 1955 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. I watched it years ago and liked it, but I wanted to watch it with fresh eyes and after watching hundreds more movies. Elia Kazan directed Marlon Brando (Terry Malloy), Karl Malden (Father Berry), Lee J. Cobb (Johnny Friendly) and Eva Marie Saint (Edie Doyle) in this dark story about corruption on the docks. Terry Malloy is a washed up boxer working on the docks and doing favors for the leader of the mob, Johnny Friendly. Unfortunately, one of the favors gets Joey Doyle killed; Joey's sister, Edie, wants answers. There are investigators from the Waterfront Crime Commission that are trying to get dockworkers to talk about what Johnny Friendly is doing. Due to feelings of guilt for Joey's death and growing feelings for Edie and the pressure coming from Father Berry, Terry considers testifying before the commission. Clearly this would not be good for Johnny and he tells Charley (Rod Steiger), Terry's older brother, to set Terry straight. This sets up the classic scene in a taxi, with Terry and Charley and Terry saying "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am.". I don't often tell you that you have to see a movie, but if you have not watched On the Waterfront or have not seen it in a while, you really should see it. Marlon Brando is amazing, restrained, strong but vulnerable. This is one of the reasons that Brando is considered one of the very best. This was Eva Marie Saint's first film and she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Malden, Steiger and Cobb were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and they probably cancelled each other out, because all three were very strong, although sometimes I find Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb too much; Steiger played such a different role than his lead role in The Heat of the Night which won him the Best Actor Oscar. But really, to me, Brando is why I watched this movie. There are political undertones because as Terry testified so did Kazan, but to the House Un-American Activities Committee which led to a backlash against Kazan by some in Hollywood.

Brando worked with Kazan and Malden a few years earlier in A Streetcar Named Desire for which all three were nominated for Best Oscars, with Malden winning that year. As a note, I was supposed to get the movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire at the same time as On the Waterfront, but someone inadvertently requested the play instead.


12/25/15 A Few Good Men, nominated Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, 1992

My normal routine on Christmas Day is to go see a movie in the theater with my friends, but we didn't want to see Star Wars or any of the other movies in the theater at the time. So instead we ate some really good food and watched some older releases, including A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson who pretty much steals every scene he is in. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffey (Cruise) is in the Navy's Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and is known for being quick to take a plea bargain and for his irreverent attitude towards regulations; Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway is an investigator in the JAG and has a reputation for plodding and taking a long time to resolve cases. They end up working together representing two Marines charged with murder. Colonel Nathan Jessup (Nicholson) has his sights set on a national post; he is also incredibly egotistical and dismissive of Kaffey and Galloway. A Few Good Men was written by Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Newsroom) based on his play, and it is taut and suspenseful. The scene where Jessup is cross-examined by Kaffey is one of the best scenes ever. Gene Hackman won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Unforgiven; it would have been a tough call for me. The movie is filled with young actors like Kevin Bacon as Jack Ross representing the Judge Advocate Division; Kiefer Sutherland, Noah Wyle, Cuba Gooding, Jr. It's probably not the traditional Christmas movie, but we all enjoyed it.

12/25/15 Goldfinger, Best Sound Effects Editing, 1965

"Gold-fingaaaaa", I mean how can you not burst into that song when you hear that title? Goldfinger was the third James Bond movie and starred Sean Connery as Bond. Bond is trying to figure out what Auric Goldfinger is up to with his gold smuggling enterprise. The adventure takes him from Miami to Switzerland to Ft. Knox in Kentucky. The Bond girls in the movie are the ill-fated Jill Masterson (Shirley Easton) and the capable and beautiful Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman, previously of The Avengers TV series). Of course there is also the henchman, and in Goldfinger we have Oddjob (Harold Sakata) who has a lethal derby hat as well as lethal hands. The Aston Martin is duly decked out, but it doesn't really last more than twenty minutes before it's trashed, which is a damned shame. There is some not great acting and definitely a suspension of belief, but that's what most movies are (I say that as a reminder to myself when I get upset that my superhero movies get too preposterous). Connery is so smooth as Bond, and he really seems to enjoy the fighting, quips and the women - not necessarily in that order. The movie won for Best Sound Effects Editing, and I was surprised that the title song sung by Shirley Bassey and written by Leslie Bricuse, Anthony Newley and John Barry. Travesty. This is also the movie where "A martini. Shaken, not stirred." made it's first appearance. All in all, a fun movie on Christmas Day.

1/1/16 The Maltese Falcon,  1941, #31 AFI, National Film Registry

I think the first time I saw The Maltese Falcon with my dad, years ago. I didn't quite appreciate Bogart or John Houston or anything really (that could apply generally to my life as well as specifically to this movie). This is another movie I wanted another chance to see and put in perspective with the other movies I've seen, including those with Bogart. This was Bogart's first real starring role and he places private detective, Sam Spade, who finds himself in the middle of a con game gone quite awry. This was also John Houston's directorial debut, and the first of several films where he teamed with Bogart. The Maltese Falcon is based on the book of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and set in San Francisco and is considered one of the first films noirs. Mary Astor is Ruth Wonderly who tells Sam and his partner Miles Archer a story about her missing sister and a mystery man. Things are not quite as they seem, and Archer is killed, and then people start asking about the Maltese Falcon, including Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and Kaspar Gutman (Sidney Greenstreet) (both men would join Bogart in Casablanca a few years later). There are double crosses and red herrings, cigarettes and whiskey. The movie was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Greenstreet) and Best Adapted Screenplay by Houston. Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor went to the film How Green was My Valley. There were some interesting filming techniques and the cinematography is really well done. It may seem a little stiff and old fashioned by today's standards; if it was made today, there would be more sex, more swearing and more blood, I'm sure, but the movie still works. Bogart shows why he was cast as Rick in Casablanca and how Houston became one of the America's great directors. The mystery is still there, which is why I haven't really told you too much. If you want to find out about the Maltese Falcon and why people are willing to die for it, you need to watch the movie.

1/3/16 Safety Last!, 1923, National Film Registry

Whether you realize it or not, you have probably seen a small part of this silent film. You know, the part where this guy is hanging off a clock attached to a tall building. You know it. Well, that's Harold Lloyd, one of the more famous silent film actors after Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Lloyd is known for his over-sized glasses. The plot is really just a conduit for some great comedic pratfalls and pranks, but here is a brief synopsis: The Boy (Lloyd) goes off to the big city to make his fortune so can bring The Girl and get married. The Boy has a hard time making any money and paying rent, but eventually he gets a job in a department store. There are some pretty humorous scenes with crazy customers and an overbearing supervisor. The Boy has a friend, Limpy, who is a construction worker and can climb great heights on buildings. The Boy wants to use Limpy's skill to win $,1000 from the department store's general manager for attracting people to the store. Limpy is to climb up the to the top of the building. The Girl comes to the city to see how The Boy is doing and she thinks he's the general manager, and leads to more comedy as The Boy barks out orders to the staff, and they follow him. Limpy has his own encounters with a policeman who is not amused by too much. Honestly, for me, I wanted to see the scene that I was familiar with in the context of the movie (like Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush), and I didn't know what to expect. I'm consistently amazed when I watch silent films that I don't miss the words. You can get the general idea of what's going on by the action, the intertitles and the music (often an updated score has been added, and I mean more than the original piano or organ music, but nothing crazy like synthesizers or anything like that). The comedy speaks for itself (no pun intended), if you're looking for something different to watch and you want to see a classic, check out this film (or something by Charlie Chaplin).

PSA: This doesn't really tie into any movie or theme in this entry, but I wanted to share this information with you anyway regarding food insecurity and children and how you can help if you are in the state of Minnesota (your community may have similar 'backpack' programs). There are over 200,000 children in Minnesota that deal with food insecurity, that is to say, they may rely on food programs at school during the week or other food subsidies. Some children do not have any food over the weekends and that makes it difficult to come back to school Monday ready to learn. The Sheridan Story in the Twin Cities area helps to provide these children with packages of food to help them get through the weekend. It's not gas station food (Twinkies, high sodium ramen, etc.) but fruit, vegetables, pasta. My firm helps to deliver these packages to a Minneapolis school on Fridays and we do it with mixed feelings, we get the warm fuzzies helping these kids but it's brutal to think this may be all they have for the weekend and that there are children in this country that are hungry. Anyway, if your company or church/synagogue/mosque is looking for something to do in the community that will have an immediate impact, please look at this website: http://www.thesheridanstory.com/ 
Thanks for reading.