Daily Archives: August 25, 2014

The Man Who Came to Dinner
Directed by William Keighley
Written by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein from the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
1942/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Sheridan Whiteside: Is there a man in the world who suffers as I do from the gross inadequacies of the human race?[/box]

This is a wacky frenetic comedy something along the lines of Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You.

Sheridan Whiteside (Monte Woolley) is the grand old man of American letters and a beloved radio host, specializing in sentimental holiday specials.  He is also a nasty egomaniac who uses his acerbic wit to bully all in earshot to do his bidding.

He and secretary Maggie Cutler (Bette Davis) arrive in a small Ohio town to give a lecture. They are scheduled to dine at the home of local bigwig Ernest Stanley and his ditzy socialite wife (Billie Burke).  He slips on their icy steps before he can even get in the front door however and the doctor announces that he has broken his hip and cannot be moved.

Through threats of litigation, Whiteside manages to take over the entire household, relegating the Stanleys to cowering in an upstairs bedroom.  He terrorizes his nurse (the wonderful Mary Wicks – Now, Voyager) and starts running his media empire via long distance calls around the globe on the Stanley’s phone.  He also gives the Stanley children advice that causes both of them to run away from home.

The sojourn in Ohio does have the positive effect of allowing faithful Maggie to fall in love with local newspaper owner and aspiring playwright Bert Jefferson.  Fearful that Maggie will leave him, Whiteside schemes his seduction by actress Lorraine Sheldon (Ann Sheridan). who has her own personal axe to grind against Maggie.  But Maggie has a secret weapon in the form of Whiteside’s friend Banjo (Jimmy Durante).

I just loved Ann Sheridan in the part of the vain pretentious Lorraine, so uncharacteristic of her usual roles.  While a little bit of Durante goes a long way, he also is very good here.  The whole is a pleasant enough entertainment with some real laughs.

Clip – Jimmy Durante, Monte Woolley, and Mary Wickes

There Was a Father (“Chichi Ariki”)
Directed Yasujiro Ozu
Written by Tadao Ikeda, Yasujiro Ozu, and Takao Yanai
1942/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu Plus

[box]The camellia against the moss of the temple, the violet hues of the Kyoto mountains, a blue porcelain cup — this sudden flowering of pure beauty at the heart of ephemeral passion: is this not something we all aspire to? And something that, in our Western civilization, we do not know how to attain?

The contemplation of eternity within the very movement of life. — Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog[/box]

I love the films of Yasujiro Ozu but this one, although exquisitely shot, was slow going for me.

Widower Shuhei Horikawa is raising his young son Ryohei.  He teaches at a junior high school in Tokyo.  When he takes the class on an outing, some of the boys disobey him by taking rowboats out on a lake. One of the boats capsizes and a boy drowns. Shuhei believes he could have been more forceful in preventing the tragedy and decides he can no longer be responsible for other people’s children.  He moves with Ryohei to his home town in the north and begins working on an assembly line.

Shuhei’s total focus is on getting Ryohei a good education.  He sends him off to a boarding school for junior high.  The boy’s separation from his father leaves a life long yearning in his heart.  Later, Shuhei decides he can make more money in Tokyo and even the weekly visits with his son must stop to be replaced by very occasional time together in the summer.  The boy graduates from university and becomes a teacher himself.  When he tells his father he want to quit and find work in Tokyo so they can live together at last, Shuhei disagrees saying that everyone’s great duty in these times is to put aside personal concerns and concentrate on doing one’s best in his chosen profession.

Even though by the end Ryohei has passed his physical for the draft, this is not treated as a matter of concern and the viewer would otherwise have no clue that total war was in the real life backdrop to this movie.  I found Ozu’s transition shots – to household objects, scenery, etc. – to linger longer than usual and to drag down the pace of this movie.  The understated love between father and son is quite touching and the ending is very moving  but I unfortunately found this one less contemplative than just plain slow.

The viewing experience was admittedly marred by the poor print and sound quality of the version I watched.

Clip – going away