Patty Rocks

When it comes to Glenn Close, I’m a rather giddy fan. For years I have loved and admired her work: stage, movies, TV, you name it. (OK, I’m willing to overlook that misbegotten South Pacific….). Think of all the great stuff: The Real Thing, Benefactors and Sunset Boulevard on Broadway, the Lion in Winter remake for Showtime, her stint on The Shield, and all those terrific, often madcap movie performances including those which should have easily won her a couple of Oscars, …Garp and Dangerous Liaisons. Hell, she even made that wretched Stepford Wives remake worth a second visit late one night.

Unlike most actors working today, Close always seems to be having so much fun in everything she does while managing a bulls-eye commitment to every role. So, I eagerly awaited the premiere of Damages which landed on FX this week. Close stars as Patty Hewes, a terrifyingly high-powered attorney who won’t be ignored. In one particularly memorable moment, she lashes out at Tate Donavan (as her wimpy associate) with a furious bravado while channeling Alex Forrest and Cruella DeVil. It’s another marvelous characterization: smart, stylish, and flirting with camp.

The show itself is fine, I suppose. But when Patty’s not around, it looks like any other slick legal thriller and some of the casting isn’t quite right. For example, poor Zeljko Ivanek is saddled with a cornpone Southern accent (why are all sleazy lawyers-on-the-take now required to sound like they stumbled out of a John Grisham opus?). Ted Danson and Rose Byrne offer little in terms of interesting characters. At least the always reliable Phillip Bosco is, well, very reliable.

But I’ll keep watching, after that guy from Cincinnati over on HBO, Close’s Patty Hewes is the best thing to happen to TV this summer.

I was, as they say, otherwise engaged, during the mild brouhaha that accompanied the announcement of the American Film Institute's latest list of the Greatest 100 Films list. Now, a few weeks later, finding myself at last in catch-up mode, a quick perusal of the list leaves little surprises; it’s not much different than the first. Although it’s a bit discouraging to see new additions like The Sixth Sense and Titanic bumping Stagecoach and The Manchurian Candidate off of the list. But, of course, this isn’t exactly the Sight & Sound Survey. As before, it’s a list that is provides a great introduction to all that is good about American ci-ne-mahh. And it celebrates dozens of truly great American film. Too bad it ignores dozens of other truly great American films in order to honor such favorites as, Toy Story, for instance (OK, a good movie, to be sure, but let’s face it: it’s not From Here to Eternity).

What makes this list so valuable to me is that it inspired a lot of film buffs and bloggers to reply with lists of their own. Sure, they are all reflections of personal choice (just like the one you’re going to see momentarily) but they all reminded me of some real gems that I hadn’t seen in a long time or, better yet, have never seen before.

It’s impossible for me to offer up a list of Best Films. I just can’t do it in a way that would garner respect and admiration among the high-minded and serious movie scribes.
As I have mentioned before, yes, on my list you will find all the usual suspects (Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Singin’ in the Rain) but they settle in next to the likes of The VIPs and Star!

Growing up an Air Force brat, I was lucky. An adolescence spent at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio provided me with five on-base movie theaters which showed just about everything you could hope to see. Premium movies got the prized Sunday-Monday or Thursday-Friday slots, everything else played one night, and then moved on to the next theater a few blocks away. Admission was something like 35 cents. If you liked a certain movie a lot (such as Airport, Chisum, Butch Cassidy...), you could catch it several times during its on-based rotation. I recall countless nights and matinees spent with my best pal Lester or with my parents (both avid moviegoers). It was at the Fairchild, The Chaparral, the Corral, among other Uncle Sam bijous, where I saw everything from Half a Sixpence and Planet of the Apes to Count Yorga, Vampire and What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? One day it was Z, the next day is was Yours Mine and Ours. Custer of the West. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. The first Italian Job.

There’s probably a much longer story here, about coming of age at the movies amidst thousands of troops who are one night watching Doris Day frolic through Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? and then shipping off to Vietnam a day later. But we’ll save that for another post.

There was something else about all those movies and movie theaters at Lackland: on occasion, there would be festivals during which over the course of a week you could see all of the James Bond movies (there were only five at that point, but still…. I saw Dr. No I don’t know how many times) or take in a big helping of Clint Eastwood (the Man-With-No-Name trilogy PLUS Hang ‘Em High and Coogan’s Bluff). I also recall the very big deal surrounding the premiere of Patton. We got it on base a few weeks before its commercial release.

After Lackland, my father was transferred to Ankara, Turkey where about a dozen theaters were showing primarily American and European movies from the 60’s and early 70’s. Big beautiful theaters and modern little cinemas where every movie had an intermission. I could see Tobruk, Two for the Road, and a Sound of Music with most of the songs lopped out, all in the course of a weekend. Two days later it was Dr. Zhivago and Die! Die! My Darling! followed by Justine and the remake of Stagecoach. And all with Turkish subtitles. Also, since there was no rating system in place, as high school sophomore I could walk right into Midnight Cowboy and The Music Lovers.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make: as a kid, I devoured movies. Good and bad. And I still do. Thus any list I would offer can only be on of my all-time favorites. I’m perfectly capable of jotting down my selection of “the Best” but where’s the fun in that? Some of them I would probably never watch again. Did someone say L'avventura? Sorry, life’s too short.

I have been thinking about my own 100 list for quite some time. But what criteria would assure a truly representative list? Finally, it boiled down to this: Did I (a) love it? And/or (b) admire it? Would I happily see it again? Have I already –happily—seen it again? And again? Would it make the Desert Island list? If I am channel surfing at 3:30 a.m. and ran across it, would I settle in and watch, even if the DVD already sits in my library? An affirmative answer landed each title on the list. But I then had almost 200. I had to get ruthless. This, as it turns out, was no easy task. So, I decided to offer up my list of favorites that did not make the AFI list, or Sight & Sound. And none of them won the Oscar for Best Picture. All of those great movies, from Casablanca to Lawrence of Arabia to Chinatown and Raging Bull….well, they get a lot of love, anyway. Here, then, is my list of much-loved Runners Up. The List could change tomorrow, but here we go:

1925 Ben-Hur
1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc
1933 The Invisible Man
1933 Queen Christina
1935 Top Hat
1935 The Bride of Frankenstein
1936 Way Out West
1938 Holiday
1938 Alexander Nevsky
1938 The Dawn Patrol
1939 The Hound of the Baskervilles
1939 Stagecoach
1939 The Women
1939 Tarzan Finds a Son
1940 The Philadelphia Story
1944 Laura
1945 Mildred Pierce
1944 Cover Girl
1946 Notorious
1948 The Red Shoes
1949 On the Town
1954 A Star is Born
1954 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
1956 The Ten Commandments
1956 Giant
1958 Auntie Mame
1958 Suddenly, Last Summer
1958 Touch of Evil
1961 Breakfast at Tiffany’s
1961 La Dolce Vita
1962 The Manchurian Candidate
1962 Dr. No
1962 How the West Was Won
1963 8 /12
1963 The Birds
1964 The Americanization of Emily
1965 Dr. Zhivago
1965 The Great Race
1966 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
1966 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1967 Two for the Road
1968 Star!
1968 Romeo & Juliet
1968 The Lion in Winter
1969 The Damned
1969 They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
1970 Chisum
1971 McCabe and Mrs. Miller
1971 Death in Venice
1971 The Garden of the Finzi Continis
1973 Cries and Whispers
1973 Ludwig
1974 Amarcord
1975 Barry Lyndon
1977 Julia
1977 The Turning Point
1977 New York, New York
1978 An Unmarried Woman
1979 Manhattan
1979 The Marriage of Maria Braun
1981 Chariots of Fire
1982 Victor/Victoria
1982 Veronika Voss
1983 Fanny and Alexander
1983 The Right Stuff
1983 Tender Mercies
1985 Ran
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters
1986 A Room with a View
1987 Maurice
1987 Law of Desire
1988 Hairspray
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
1990 Dances with Wolves
1992 Howards End
1992 The Last of the Mohicans
1993 The Age of Innocence
1995 Clueless
1996 Fargo
1997 Boogie Nights
1998 The Thin Red Line
1999 Topsy Turvy
1999 All About My Mother
1999 Election
1999 Magnolia
2000 Tigerland
2000 Almost Famous
2001 Gosford Park
2001 Ghost World
2002 The Hours
2002 Far From Heaven
2002 Y Tu Mama’ Tambien
2003 Kill Bill 1
2004 Bad Education
2005 Brokeback Mountain
2005 Pride & Prejudice
2005 Munich
2006 Volver
2006 Casino Royale

A Cavalcade of Insults

Congratulations to this year’s Emmy winners.

Wow. What a great line-up; each and every one so totally deserving!

Drama:
Deadwood, Ian McShane, Lindsay Duncan, Dominic Chianese, Paula Malcomson

Comedy:
Weeds, Jason Lee, Mary Louise Parker, Jeremy Piven, Jaime Pressly

Oh. Wait a minute. Sorry. I must have drifted off. The awards won’t be handed out for a few more weeks. And most of the above contenders weren’t even nominated.

The Emmy Brigade strikes again.
Cocksuckers.

Yesterday marked the centennial of the great Barbara Stanwyck. Rather than offer up an appreciation which may sound like the ravings of a Stage Door Johnny, let me direct you to two excellent must-reads courtesy of Edward Copeland on Film and The House Next Door . Both will surely inspire you to adjust your Netflix line-up immediately.

In a salute to the great dame, I stayed up til the wee hours last night, watching her in Robert Wise’s Executive Suite. I love this movie. A sharp and tidy little gem from 1954, it’s not Stanwyck’s greatest achievement but, golly, does she shine in her small but oh-so-pivotal supporting role. Walter Pidgeon, Fredric March, William Holden, June Allyson, and a lovely (and Oscar-nominated) Nina Foch fill out the very all-star cast.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for Ball of Fire.

No Regrets

Forget the surprisingly knuckleheaded reviews being offered up by some of our most reliable critics and judge the many merits of La Vie En Rose for yourself. Olivier Dahan’s biopic is downright marvelous. A big, overstuffed Dickensian melodrama, it careens around the screen with the reckless spirit very much like that of its hallowed subject, Edith Piaf. The jolting jumble of the chronology which has made some reviewers apoplectic is, as far as I’m concerned, an appropriately cinematic representation of the chaos that was Piaf’s life. And in a career-defining performance, Marion Cottilard breaks your heart as the legendary Little Sparrow. Beautiful cinematography courtesy of Tetsuo Nagata , by the way. And a dashing turn by Jean-Pierre Martins as boxing champ and Piaf’s one great love, Marcel Cerdan.

A wonderful movie. My Top Ten List of 2007 has officially launched.

The Honorable Brigham Anderson

Turner Classic Movies recently wrapped up its terrific SCREENED OUT festival of gay-themed (or gay-related) films, offering quite the banquet of the good, the bad and the forgotten. A prime example of the latter would be Staircase, Stanley Donen’s little stinker from 1969 with Richard Burton and Rex Harrison mincing their way through a kitchen-sink soap opera that, by comparison, makes The Boys in the Band upbeat and life-affirming. It’s a forgettable flick, but still worth watching just to see movieland’s Caesar and Antony flitting about as two desperate old poofs.

Happily, the Screened Out series, inspired by Richard Barrios’ 2005 study, Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall , offered lots of treats, including such seldom seen novelties as Hal Roach's hilariously bizarre screwball comedy Turnabout as well as George Cukor's brittle drawing-room comedy Our Betters made the same years as his Dinner at Eight and Little Women (1933)and featuring a rather grand leading-lady turn by Constance Bennett.

At the other end of the spectrum was Otto Preminger’s great, sprawling Advise and Consent which remains one of the most entertaining movies ever made about our nation’s capitol. It’s a marvelous political potboiler that actually makes a confirmation hearing a juicy springboard for all sorts of intrigue. It’s not a gay movie, per se, but since secrets and blackmail are essential to the plot, you can easily guess the subject of the cover-up. Based on Allen Drury’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the movie is dark and jaded, showcasing some real Hollywood bluebloods in outstanding performances (Henry Fonda, Lew Ayers, Walter Pidgeon, a gorgeous Gene Tierney, and world-weary Franchot Tone), the best being a scenery-gobbling Charles Laughton, in his last performance, as Senator Seabright Cooley of South Carolina.

It’s said that all the major characters are based on actual politicos, thus Peter Lawford’s suave and charming take on JFK, his brother-in-law, is certainly irresistible. Among the youngsters in the cast, handsome and stalwart Don Murray is also quite good as the Mormon senator from Utah, Brigham "Brig" Anderson, the one with that desperate secret. And Inga Swenson is also on hand, as his long-suffering and noble wife. Weep for her.

Introducing Miss Kitty Twist

Added to my Guilty Pleasures list last week: Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Edmund Dmytryk’s lurid tale set in a French Quarter bordello, starring Barbara Stanwyck as a stylishly butch and aging madam with the hots for Capucine (can you blame her?) Also on board are Laurence Harvey as a Texas (?) farm hand also in love with Capucine (can you blame him?) and Anne Baxter as a Mexican (?) owner of a truckstop café who pumps gas in high heels and quietly smolders for Harvey.

Best of all, however, is a young Jane Fonda as a piece of trashy jailbait named Kitty Twist. Yes, yes, yes: she’s a great thespian with Coming Home and Klute and Julia and a few other rightfully praised performances under her belt…but this is early Fonda, the Jane We Love of The Chase and –best of all—Hurry Sundown. She sizzles in this one and appears to be having one hell of a good time. And when she disappears for the second act, we miss her (although Baxter’s impersonation of Katy Jurado keeps us glued, as does Stanwyck’s aching loins). But Kitty’s too tantalizing not too pop back into the picture, which she does with scene-stealing abandon.

Really, this is a major delight. If the camp doesn’t seduce you, then at least take time to appreciate Elmer Bernstein’s groovy score with that pounding theme song and the naughty opening credits, courtesy of Saul Bass, with that angry black cat