From Those Were the Days:

1960 - The Romance of Helen Trent was heard for the last time on radio. Helen and her boy-toy, Gil Whitney, were about to be married, but the loving couple never made it to the altar -- just in case the show would ever be renewed. Helen Trent and her romance aired for 27 years -- a total of 7,222 episodes -- on the CBS Radio network.
10:44:02 PM    comment []  trackback []  

“Do you know the world is a foul sty? Do you know, if you rip off the fronts of houses, you'd find swine?”

Well, I’m in my second week with the Netflix membership, and I have to say—it’s a keeper. I received three more movies in the mail Tuesday afternoon, all of which I watched in the wee a.m. hours, basking in my day off.

I kicked things off with All the President’s Men (1976), the classic political conspiracy thriller based on the book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. In the film, Robert Redford (as Woodward) and Dustin Hoffman (Bernstein) play the two muckrakers who investigate the infamous Watergate scandal and in essence, bring down a Presidency. What’s always enthralled me about this film is the sure-footed direction of the late Alan J. Pakula, who—although responsible for many films—really hit his stride with conspiracy thrillers; among the offerings on his resume are The Parallax View (1974, probably the best political conspiracy film next to The Manchurian Candidate) and The Pelican Brief (1993). Most of what happens in President’s Men is fairly mundane, but Pakula has a knack for really driving home the whole paranoia of the piece—people often speak in hushed tones, meetings and interviews take place at night or in darkened garages, etc. Redford and Hoffman make a dynamite team, and the film spotlights an incredible array of acting talent including Jason Robards (an Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor), Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jane Alexander, Meredith Baxter, Ned Beatty and Stephen Collins—plus bits from Polly “Flo” Holliday, Lindsay Crouse and Robert Walden (who would play investigative reporter Joe Rossi on Lou Grant from 1977-82).

Continuing with the thriller theme, I checked out Fritz Lang’s classic M (1931) afterward—I used to have a copy of this on VHS, but it was a pretty shabby public domain copy. Fortunately, the version I rented was the Criterion one—although it’s only a degree or two better. Actor Peter Lorre established himself as one of the silver screen’s best character actors in his starring role as a child murderer who is captured by the members of a city’s underworld and, having been put on trial, is sentenced to death. (Child molesters are considered the lowest of the low among criminals, as witnessed in a great 1977 film directed by the great independent filmmaker Robert M. Young, Short Eyes—which I have just discovered is available on DVD!) I am, of course, not only a big Lorre fan but also a Lang partisan—and his direction in this film is among his very best; the scene I always remember is how Lang conveys that a child has been murdered by showing (in succession) a shot of the child’s place at dinner, a toy ball rolling onto a field and a balloon caught in some power wires. The film still packs quite the emotional wallop.

I finished up my movie marathon with Shadow of a Doubt, a 1943 suspenser directed by Alfred Hitchcock and the film he considered his very favorite. We find ourselves in the peaceful, all-American town of Santa Rosa (thanks to co-writer Thornton “Our Town” Wilder) where the Newton family is about to get a visit from Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten). Unk has a special bond with his niece (Teresa Wright), who’s named after him—and she soon learns that he is harboring a sinister secret that will change her life and possibly endanger those she loves the most. Shadow of a Doubt isn’t my favorite Hitchock film (that honor would probably go to North By Northwest), but I’ll have to admit it’s definitely one of Hitch’s best, and the DVD is pretty neat in so much as it has a nifty documentary on the film that features commentary from Wright and Hume Cronyn (Doubt was his film debut, he plays the timid next-door neighbor who often discusses the subject of murder with Papa Newton, portrayed by Henry “Clarence” Travers.) Every time I see this movie, I take more and more out of it; the concept of a sweet, innocent town being invaded by an evil force is conveyed beautifully by Hitchcock, Wilder and co-writers Sally Benson (who wrote the hit stage play Junior Miss) and Mrs. Hitchcock, Alma Reville. (I love Cotton’s monologue about the “horrible, faded, fat, greedy women,” and when niece Wright responds “They’re alive…they’re human beings!” Cotton turns to the camera [which is in close-up] and snarls, “Are they?” Spooky!) Kudos to the supporting cast, too, which includes Patricia Collinge, Macdonald Carey and Wallace Ford.
10:42:42 PM    comment []  trackback []