Monthly Archives: January 2021

Blazing Saddles

Jim: [consoling Bart, who is upset that his attempts to be cordial with the citizens of Rock Ridge led to him being racially insulted] What did you expect? “Welcome, sonny”? “Make yourself at home”? “Marry my daughter”? You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.

Not politically correct, but very funny.

The tale takes place in 1874.  Bart (Cleavon Little) is working on a chain gang laying railroad tracks.  He is sent to investigate some quicksand up ahead, of course falling into it with a buddy.  Soon he is standing in line to be hung.  The railroad will have to be shifted and is now slated to go through the town of Rock Ridge.  Evil political hack Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) decides the best way to lower property values in Rock Ridge would be to send the town a Black sheriff.  Thus Bart is spared and heads to Rock Ridge.

Bart sets himself up in the jail and meets ex-sharpshooter “Waco Kid” Jim (Gene Wilder) who is now a common drunk.  But the two become friends and allies and Jim sobers up. It’s the two of them against the whole racist town.  But Bart has unusual smarts and is determined to do his job and protect the town.  Hedley hires saloon singer Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) to seduce Bart and find out what he’s up to.  This has the opposite effect and now Hedley has three foes instead of two.

Bart and Jim cook up an elaborate plan to build a replica of Rock Creek and lure the bad guys to the wrong town.  After an epic brawl, the fourth wall is breached and the fight takes over the Warner Bros. lot.  With Slim Pickins as the railroad foreman and Mel Brooks in a double role as randy Governor Le Petomane and another as an Indian Chief.

This movie seems to have grown on me over the years.  It is chock full of bad puns, fart jokes, double entendres, and physical humor.  Brooks got the final cut on the picture and left every outrageous bit in.  For example, the movie ends with a huge pie fight.  Some of it is kind of juvenile but mostly it’s a laugh a minute.  Recommended

The Conversation

Harry Caul: If there’s one sure fire rule that I have learned in this business is… I don’t know anything about human nature. I don’t know anything about curiousity. That’s not part of what I do.

Sadly, this film is more relevant than ever.  It’s my favorite film by Coppola and my favorite performance by Gene Hackman

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is one of the best surveillance men in the business.  He has been hired by the director of a powerful company (Robert Duvall) to find out what his young wife Ann (Cindy Williams) is up to.  We watch as Harry and his colleagues try to capture a conversation Ann has with Mark (Frederic Forrest at lunchtime in a busy park in San Francisco.  The sound quality isn’t too great but Harry has the conversation recorded from multiple devices in various locations and by carefully splicing tapes together and cleaning up the sound, the conversation comes together.  He tries to deliver this to the director but he is out of the office.  He refuses to give the tape to creepy executive Martin Stett (Harrison Ford).

We learn that Harry, the ultimate eavesdropper, guards his own privacy zealously.  He won’t even tell Amy (Terri Garr) the most basic details of his life.  He always drops in on her without previous announcement.  Amy tries and fails to get Harry to open up on his birthday. She tells him she is not going to wait for him any more.  This gets under his skin but does not disturb his stoic exterior.

Harry goes to a trade convention and brings a few colleagues back to his office for a little party that allows the one of the guests to steal his tape.  Harry can put this back together. After listening to the tape over and over, Harry becomes convinced that the couple are in great danger of being murdered.  I will stop here.  With John Cazale as one of Harry’s employees

Hackman is fantastic in this movie.  His character forced him to restrain his performance and he is believable the whole way through.  I felt so sorry for him by the end.  He wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar. The winner was Art Carney who prevailed over Albert Finney, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman.   The script is  really clever and engaging.  The time flew by.  I love David Shire’ jazz piano score.  Another movie that is extremely rewatchable even though you know the whole story.  Highly recommended.

The Conversation was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Writing, Original Screenplay and, fittingly, Best Sound

Emmi Kurowski: But when we’re together, we must be nice to each other. Otheriwse, life’s not worth living.

I love Fassbinder’s melodramatic take on prejudice and racism.

Emmi Kurowski (Brigitte Mira) is a homely middle-aged widow who works as a cleaning lady.  One day she steps into a convenient barroom to get out of the rain.  It turns out the bar caters to foreign workers, mostly Arabs.  Arabs are all called “Ali” by the Germans. One of the girls dares an Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) to dance with Emmi.  He does.  They find they can share their troubles with each other and fall in love.  Emmi invites Ali to move in.

The relationship is condemned and mocked by virtually everyone including: Emmi’s neighbors, her co-workers, her children, local shopkeepers, and Ali’s co-workers.  Emmi is frequently referred to an an “old whore”.  The landlord threatens to evict Emmi for “subletting” her apartment.  So the couple marries.  Emmi’s children disown their mother. Things get so bad that the couple takes an out of town trip.  When they return they find that attitudes have changed.  Can this relationship survive?  With director Fassbinder as Emmi’s son-in-law, Irm Hermann as her daughter, and Barbara Valentin as the bar owner.

This is sort of Fassbinder’s take on Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows (1955) with an interracial relationship adding more social condemnation to the intergenerational one in that film.  We even get a scene of the children smashing the TV they bought to help relieve their mother’s loneliness The images are stunning and the story is still very relevant. Fassbinder also takes on Germany’s Nazi past and current German prejudice against its much needed foreign work force, highlighting the stress faced by these workers.   The acting is fantastic, though El Hedi ben Salem is clearly an amateur.  His performance works though.  Recommended.

Chinatown

Ida Sessions: Are you alone?
Jake Gittes: Isn’t everybody?

This is one of those classics that you can pull out on any occasion, even with non-classic movie fanatics, and be assured that everyone in the room will love it.  That is because it is perfect.

The setting is 1937 Los Angeles.  Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a private investigator who seems to specialize in messy divorces.  We will learn that he has the instincts of a crack detective.  A woman pays Jake a visit and tells him she, Evelyn Mulwray, wants Jake to tail her husband Hollis and get a picture of him with his paramour.

Hollis is Chief Engineer for the Los Angeles Water and Power Department, a position that gives him a lot of power over how the scarce city water supply is allocated.  He is under enormous pressure to approve a dam that he opposes.  Jake’s “operatives” follow him around but he appears to have water on the brain 24 hours a day.  Finally, Jake is able to photograph him at a bungalow being affectionate to a young blonde.  He provides his report to Mrs. Mulwray.  The next day the photo is in the paper along with a lurid headline.

Noah Cross: You may think you know what you’re dealing with, but, believe me, you don’t.
[Gittes grins]
Noah Cross: Why is that funny?
Jake Gittes: That’s what the District Attorney used to tell me in Chinatown.

Shortly thereafter a mysterious woman introduces herself as Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway).  She is not at all happy with the publicity and. of course, did not ask for her husband to be followed. She says she will sue.  With John Huston in an incredible performance as Noah Cross, Burt Young as a client, Diane Ladd as Ida Sessions, and Roman Polanski as a hoodlum.

This movie is a murder mystery and has many unforgettable twists and turns and it would be criminal for me to go any further on the off chance one of my readers has not seen it.

This is a movie I can and have watched over and over.  It’s hard to say whether I prefer the direction, the script, the cinematography, the acting or the music.  That is because they are all perfect. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway were on fire at this exact time.  The plot gives you both an entertaining mystery and something to think about afterwards.  Polanski draws you in and makes the time fly.  This will probably still be a classic 50 years from now.  Unreservedly recommended.

Robert Towne won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.  Chinatown was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score.  I can’t understand how John Huston was not nominated and I would have voted for Jerry Goldsmith’s jazzy score over Nino Rota’s copy of a copy of a copy of his own work, beautiful as that music is.

A Woman Under the Influence

Nick Longhetti: Mabel is not crazy, she’s unusual. She’s not crazy, so don’t say she’s crazy.

Almost too intense to bear, this domestic psychodrama is a must-see for its performances.

Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk) holds a blue collar job on a highway maintenance crew.  His wife Mabel (Gena Rowlands) stays home and cares for their three young children.  The couple clearly love each other very much.  The problem is that Mabel keeps kind of slipping and sliding into a world of her own.  She is also painfully socially inept.  Nick is the kind of guy that is never happier than when staging a big party and these are torture for her.

Nick lets her down on a date night and Mabel is not in a good state when she decides to host a little party for her children and their friends.  Her idea of fun includes dancing to imaginary music and playing dress-up and make-up as the kids ransack the house.  The father of one arrives and is appalled by what he sees.

Somehow Mabel’s mother-in-law (Katherine Cassavetes) gets involved. Imagine the worst most insensitive mother-in-law on the planet and multiply by two.  She convinces Nick that Mabel needs to be hospitalized.  Her psychiatrist arrives.  A pitched battle ensues as Mabel resists being taken away with all her strength.

Six months later, Mabel has just been released from the hospital.  Nick’s idea for a homecoming is to invite all of his friends and all of their extended family for a surprise celebration and feast.  This does not work out well either and another donnybrook ensues. Lady Rowlands played Mabel’s mother.

Gena Rowlands gives an absolutely incredible performance as Mabel.  She was so vulnerable it hurt.  And Peter Falk is fantastic as her clueless but faithful spouse.  The entire cast lets everything hang out.  There is a lot of chaotic shouting and even physical violence.   The screenplay is raw and real.  As far as I am concerned this is a must-see, albeit an exhausting one.  I can equally see why some people might hate it.

Gena Rowlands was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar.  John Cassavetes was nominated for Best Director.