Monthly Archives: June 2023

The Stunt Man
Directed by Richard Rush
Written by Lawrence B. Marcus, adapted by Richard Rush from a novel by Paul Brodeur
1980/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental

Eli Cross: Do you not know that King Kong the first was just three foot six inches tall? He only came up to Faye Wray’s belly button! If God could do the tricks that we can do he’d be a happy man!

This was very interesting for its backstage view of stunt work and special effects. The plot didn’t really hold together for me though.

Peter O’Toole plays Eli Ross, a manipulative almost demonic film director. He is making an action-packed World War I movie full of explosives and dangerous stunt work. His latest planned stunt worked disastrously ending in the stunt man’s drowning.

Eli had been overseeing the scene in a helicopter and spots fugitive from justice Cameron (Steve Railsback) committing one more crime. Eli is short a stunt man and decides making Cameron a substitute is the best punishment for him. Thus the untrained Cameron is forced to do the riskiest scariest stunts. By the end he has fallen in love with lead actress Nina Franklin (Barbara Hershey).

The problem I had with this movie is that Railsback portrays Cameron (well I admit) as a total psychopath but by the end I think we’re supposed to sympathize with him and this was not really prepared for. I thought O’Toole could have been been better utilized. But it is fun to see all the heavy equipment and various tricks used in making a combat film realistic.

Coal Miner’s Daughter
Directed by Michael Apted
Written by Tom Rickman from an autobiography by Loretta Lynn and George Vecsey
1980/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Loretta Lynn: [trying out a new song] It goes like this “It’ll be over my dead body, so get out while you can”, then it drops down to “cause you ain’t woman enough to take my man!”
Doolittle Lynn: Where’d you come up with the idea for that song, Loretta?

Is this one of the best singer biopics ever made? I think so. Loved it all over again. The acting is stupendous.

This is the life of country music legend Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek). It tracks her story from being the eldest of eight kids in a Kentucky family held together by a lot of love and very little money.

When she is thirteen she falls in love with and marries feckless Doolittle Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones). She gives him four children by the time she is 20. They move to town. Their little family also struggles.

One birthday Doolittle gives Loretta a guitar and she teaches herself to play. Writing songs comes natural.

Loretta’s fame would stress the marriage almost to its limits. With Levon Helm as Loretta’s father and Beverly D’Angelo as Patsy Cline.

Spacek richly deserved her Best Actress Oscar for this film. She is phenomenal in singing and acting. I think Tommy Lee Jones deserved at least a nomination for his. The film is also beautiful to look at. I really enjoyed this re-watch.

The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Art Design-Set Decoration.

Sing and Like It
William A. Seiter
Written by Marion Dix and Laird Doyle from a story by Aben Kandel
1934/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

T. Fenny Sylvester: Go on! Scram out of here before I run a temperature. I got an appointment to see some gentlemen.
Ruby: You’ve only seen 12 gentlemen in your life – they was on a jury.

I eased back into movie watching with something from the June Criterion Channel Screwball Comedy collection, William A Seiter, “Sing and Like It (1934). It’s a bargain budget B-movie from RKO featuring a wonderful cast made up of character actors.

Nat Pendleton is a very wealthy mob boss. He is married to Pert Kelton who is bored out of her mind and wants to go on the stage. Nat is a homebody and forbids this.

Zasu Pitts has the same aims without Kelton’s beauty or possible talent. Zasu’s speciality is a sentimental song titled “Your Mother”. This brings to tears and he uses his muscle to get Zasu a Broadway gig. With Ned Sparks, Edward Everett Horton and John Qualen.

This certainly was not a laugh riot. My favorite parts were with Zasu Pitts. The deadpan way she sings that song is absolutely priceless.