HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)
Directed by Hal Ashby
Starring: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner
Harold Chassen (Cort) is twenty years old, wealthy, bored and obsessed with death. He stages mock suicides and attends funerals of people he doesn't know. While at one of these funerals, he meets 79-year-old Maude (Gordon), who is the freest of free spirits. The two form an unlikely bond, as Maude shows Harold how to live life to its fullest. Meanwhile, Harolds mother (Pickles) sets Harold up on three blind dates, whom he manages to alienate through his use of elaborate suicidal fakeries. Maude's lust for life eventually takes Harold by storm, and he announces his plans to marry her. Unfortunately, Maude has other plans...
It's a very poorly kept secret that I hate romantic comedies. So I was really taken aback by Harold and Maude, which is the antithesis of the genre. Their romance is so unlikely and the humor so dark that I immediately came to love it. It takes the same "boy meets girl" trope and turns it on its head in a wonderful way. In fact, there is nothing conventional about this film. It's a product of it's time and counterculture in nearly every way. And more that that, it is proud of its counterculture stance; it makes no apologies. I have to say I dig that.
Bud Cort does very well in his role as the melancholy and somewhat demented Harold. His innocent baby-faced look belies a much darker side to the character, which makes his fake suicides and fascination on death that much funnier. But it is Ruth Gordon who absolutely shines as the free-wheeling Maude. As the film progresses, we see that she too has a dark side that comes from what very likely was an extremely hard life, which is only hinted at. On paper, it doesn't look like these two should have anything to do with one another. But one of the rules of writing that I find works best is not to create scenes, but to create characters, and put them in a situation. And it works wonderfully here.
There are those who, I'm sure, would rate this film lower, what with its dark comedy and quirky love story. But I am a fan of any film that bends a genre and does it well. If you're not careful, you can turn your film into a parody very quickly and without meaning to. But this film is a beautiful portrait of an unlikely pair.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Day 36: He Got A Real Purty Mouth, Ain't He?
DELIVERANCE (1972)
Directed by John Boorman
Starring: John Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox
All men like to think they're tough. There's something in our DNA that sometimes makes us want to run out in to the wilderness and live off the land. We want to be providers, hunters and gatherers, like our forefathers. This side of us lies in every male, whether they admit it or not. So it stands to reason that the best way to scare the crap out of a man is to put him in a situation where he is at the mercy of his surroundings.
And thus we have Deliverance, a film about four city boys from Atlanta who want to ride the Cahulawassee river before it's dammed up and made into a lake. The Alpha Male of the group is Lewis (Reynolds), who has the most experience in the woods. His friend Ed (Voight) tags along out of boredom more than anything. Their mutual friends Bobby (Beatty) and Drew (Cox) also come along, though they are clearly out of their element. Their first stop is at a gas station where Drew picks his guitar along with an odd-looking banjo-playing boy. It's a scene that's funny, cute and sort of off-putting all at the same time. In fact, the whole first half of the movie, with it's gorgeous cinematography by veteran D.P. Vilmos Zsigmond, sort of lulls us into a false sense of security. The scenery is beautiful and the boys are having a grand old time canoeing down the river and "getting back to nature."
Things take a sinister turn, however, when Bobby and Ed go off into the wood alone. They come across a couple sodomite hillbillies who proceed to violate Bobby and start to work on Ed (the one with the "purty mouth"). But Lewis is there just in time, and shoots one of the offenders down with his bow and arrow. The other bolts into the woods. Now the boys are faced with a decision: go to the authorities or keep quiet and just bury the body. Despite Drew's insistence on the former, they decide on the latter, and get on with their trip. But there's still one deranged mountain man on the loose, and he's got revenge (and probably other things) on his mind.
This film starts off pretty peaceful and serene, but there are several instances where we get the feeling that this isn't going to be a peaceful journey. Over shots of construction near the lake, we hear Lewis and his friends debate whether it's a good idea to dam the lake. Lewis says no at first. But through the gruelling course of this film, covering up what happened there seems like a pretty good idea. As we progress, the terrain gets rougher and rougher, and by they time our boys find their way back to civilization (so to speak), they all have a hard time re-adjusting. Especially when the cops start asking questions like "If you started with four guys, why are there only three of you?"
This is the film that is credited with making Burt Reynolds a household name, and rightfully so. His combination of machismo and charisma make for a commanding performance. Voight is pretty good too as a novice who soon - out of necessity - learns the meaning of survival. This is actually the first film for Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, who both came from theater backgrounds. And having two novice film actors with two experienced ones adds to the realism of the film.
Of course, there are parts that are pretty hard to sit through, especially for men. I've actually seen this movie classified as a "horror film," and for those of us who like to think we're macho, I'd say that's right on the money. It's especially interesting because most horror films are made to make women scream. Men are supposed to sit there like the Rock of Gibraltar and say "There, there, honey. It's only a movie." Deliverance works in a different way, and will scare the living daylights out of any man who's never been camping. And, as a result, will probably never go.
Directed by John Boorman
Starring: John Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox
All men like to think they're tough. There's something in our DNA that sometimes makes us want to run out in to the wilderness and live off the land. We want to be providers, hunters and gatherers, like our forefathers. This side of us lies in every male, whether they admit it or not. So it stands to reason that the best way to scare the crap out of a man is to put him in a situation where he is at the mercy of his surroundings.
And thus we have Deliverance, a film about four city boys from Atlanta who want to ride the Cahulawassee river before it's dammed up and made into a lake. The Alpha Male of the group is Lewis (Reynolds), who has the most experience in the woods. His friend Ed (Voight) tags along out of boredom more than anything. Their mutual friends Bobby (Beatty) and Drew (Cox) also come along, though they are clearly out of their element. Their first stop is at a gas station where Drew picks his guitar along with an odd-looking banjo-playing boy. It's a scene that's funny, cute and sort of off-putting all at the same time. In fact, the whole first half of the movie, with it's gorgeous cinematography by veteran D.P. Vilmos Zsigmond, sort of lulls us into a false sense of security. The scenery is beautiful and the boys are having a grand old time canoeing down the river and "getting back to nature."
Things take a sinister turn, however, when Bobby and Ed go off into the wood alone. They come across a couple sodomite hillbillies who proceed to violate Bobby and start to work on Ed (the one with the "purty mouth"). But Lewis is there just in time, and shoots one of the offenders down with his bow and arrow. The other bolts into the woods. Now the boys are faced with a decision: go to the authorities or keep quiet and just bury the body. Despite Drew's insistence on the former, they decide on the latter, and get on with their trip. But there's still one deranged mountain man on the loose, and he's got revenge (and probably other things) on his mind.
This film starts off pretty peaceful and serene, but there are several instances where we get the feeling that this isn't going to be a peaceful journey. Over shots of construction near the lake, we hear Lewis and his friends debate whether it's a good idea to dam the lake. Lewis says no at first. But through the gruelling course of this film, covering up what happened there seems like a pretty good idea. As we progress, the terrain gets rougher and rougher, and by they time our boys find their way back to civilization (so to speak), they all have a hard time re-adjusting. Especially when the cops start asking questions like "If you started with four guys, why are there only three of you?"
This is the film that is credited with making Burt Reynolds a household name, and rightfully so. His combination of machismo and charisma make for a commanding performance. Voight is pretty good too as a novice who soon - out of necessity - learns the meaning of survival. This is actually the first film for Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, who both came from theater backgrounds. And having two novice film actors with two experienced ones adds to the realism of the film.
Of course, there are parts that are pretty hard to sit through, especially for men. I've actually seen this movie classified as a "horror film," and for those of us who like to think we're macho, I'd say that's right on the money. It's especially interesting because most horror films are made to make women scream. Men are supposed to sit there like the Rock of Gibraltar and say "There, there, honey. It's only a movie." Deliverance works in a different way, and will scare the living daylights out of any man who's never been camping. And, as a result, will probably never go.
Day 35: Women Cry For It - Men Die For It!
REEFER MADNESS (or: TELL YOUR CHILDREN) (1936)
Directed by Louis Gasnier
Starring: Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Lillian Miles, Dave O'Brien, Thelma White, Norman McCollum, Carleton Young
Here we have a film that has had quite a life on the Midnight Movie circuit. It's developed a solid cult following on college campuses and anywhere bad cinema is appreciated. So I decided to find out what all the buzz (hahaha) was about. And for the record, I was stone-cold sober while watching it.
The film begins with a disclaimer that what we are about to see is pretty intense. But if it stops even one kid from getting hooked on marihuana (sic), it'll all be worth it. So strap yourselves in folks, because the first thing we see is...a PTA meeting. Scandalous! We get about five minutes worth of debriefing as to what marihuana is, where it comes from and how it's distributed before we finally get to our story, which involves two dope peddlers, Mae (White) and Jack (Young). Mae likes to sell to people her own age, while Jack and his associates, Ralph (O'Brien) and Blanche (Miles), think the future of the dope business lies with the high school crowd. He targets young Bill Harper (Craig) and his buddy Jimmy Lane (McCollum), and brings them over to Mae's apartment for a reefer party. But they just forgot one thing: the reefers. So Jimmy offers to drive Jack downtown to get some. On the way, Jimmy asks Jack for a perfectly harmless tobacco cigarette, but unbeknowst to him, he gets the Devil Weed. This makes him extremely excited and on the way back, they run over a pedestrian, not really caring about it. Once back at the flat, Bill takes his first toke from Blanche and is immediately hooked. He's over at Mae's real regular now, man. And his sister Mary (Short) goes looking for him when he doesn't come home from school one day. He finds her at Mae's, involved in a tawdry affair with Blanche. Ralph likes what he sees in Mary and tries to take advantage of her. Bill comes out hallucinates that his sister is stripping for Ralph, which makes him spring into action against him. Jack hears the commotion (even though he didn't hear Mary screaming, for some reason) and bursts in, gun at the ready. During the scuffle, however, it goes off and Mary is killed. Bill goes on trial for killing his own sister. Ralph becomes paranoid and does nothing but smoke weed constantly. Eventually, when Jack tries to kill Ralph, the police raid the apartment. Blanche comes forward with the truth about what happened and Bill is exonerated. After she signs a confession, she - for some reasons - leaps out of the window to her death. Now, the tale having been told, we are back at the PTA meeting, where we are warned to TELL YOUR CHILDREN.
All of this sounds like more fun than it really is. The film is horribly and terribly made. Even the supposedly salacious scenes of illicit drug use and wanton sex don't really help it. It's like putting gourmet meat on moldy bread and calling it a sandwich. The acting is terrible, the sound is so muddled you can't make out what anyone is saying half the time, and the story is too convoluted to be crammed into 67 minutes. As such, it's not even entertaining as bad cinema. About the only bright spot is Dave O'Brien as Ralph. His scenes of dope-induced paranoia are pretty funny. Other than that, it's a bore. And badly made bore, at that.
Really, the only people who would appreciate this film are those who are long-time pot smokers. The accusations about weed are pretty ludicrous, and obviously very little research was done. I know pot smokers (and have even tried it myself a few times, though I gave it up), and not one of them acted as if they were on speed, or hallucinated. In fact, if they ever watched this movie on a lark, they'd probably fall asleep. The film might be appreciated as a curiosity, but not much else. Tell your children to avoid it.
Directed by Louis Gasnier
Starring: Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Lillian Miles, Dave O'Brien, Thelma White, Norman McCollum, Carleton Young
Here we have a film that has had quite a life on the Midnight Movie circuit. It's developed a solid cult following on college campuses and anywhere bad cinema is appreciated. So I decided to find out what all the buzz (hahaha) was about. And for the record, I was stone-cold sober while watching it.
The film begins with a disclaimer that what we are about to see is pretty intense. But if it stops even one kid from getting hooked on marihuana (sic), it'll all be worth it. So strap yourselves in folks, because the first thing we see is...a PTA meeting. Scandalous! We get about five minutes worth of debriefing as to what marihuana is, where it comes from and how it's distributed before we finally get to our story, which involves two dope peddlers, Mae (White) and Jack (Young). Mae likes to sell to people her own age, while Jack and his associates, Ralph (O'Brien) and Blanche (Miles), think the future of the dope business lies with the high school crowd. He targets young Bill Harper (Craig) and his buddy Jimmy Lane (McCollum), and brings them over to Mae's apartment for a reefer party. But they just forgot one thing: the reefers. So Jimmy offers to drive Jack downtown to get some. On the way, Jimmy asks Jack for a perfectly harmless tobacco cigarette, but unbeknowst to him, he gets the Devil Weed. This makes him extremely excited and on the way back, they run over a pedestrian, not really caring about it. Once back at the flat, Bill takes his first toke from Blanche and is immediately hooked. He's over at Mae's real regular now, man. And his sister Mary (Short) goes looking for him when he doesn't come home from school one day. He finds her at Mae's, involved in a tawdry affair with Blanche. Ralph likes what he sees in Mary and tries to take advantage of her. Bill comes out hallucinates that his sister is stripping for Ralph, which makes him spring into action against him. Jack hears the commotion (even though he didn't hear Mary screaming, for some reason) and bursts in, gun at the ready. During the scuffle, however, it goes off and Mary is killed. Bill goes on trial for killing his own sister. Ralph becomes paranoid and does nothing but smoke weed constantly. Eventually, when Jack tries to kill Ralph, the police raid the apartment. Blanche comes forward with the truth about what happened and Bill is exonerated. After she signs a confession, she - for some reasons - leaps out of the window to her death. Now, the tale having been told, we are back at the PTA meeting, where we are warned to TELL YOUR CHILDREN.
All of this sounds like more fun than it really is. The film is horribly and terribly made. Even the supposedly salacious scenes of illicit drug use and wanton sex don't really help it. It's like putting gourmet meat on moldy bread and calling it a sandwich. The acting is terrible, the sound is so muddled you can't make out what anyone is saying half the time, and the story is too convoluted to be crammed into 67 minutes. As such, it's not even entertaining as bad cinema. About the only bright spot is Dave O'Brien as Ralph. His scenes of dope-induced paranoia are pretty funny. Other than that, it's a bore. And badly made bore, at that.
Really, the only people who would appreciate this film are those who are long-time pot smokers. The accusations about weed are pretty ludicrous, and obviously very little research was done. I know pot smokers (and have even tried it myself a few times, though I gave it up), and not one of them acted as if they were on speed, or hallucinated. In fact, if they ever watched this movie on a lark, they'd probably fall asleep. The film might be appreciated as a curiosity, but not much else. Tell your children to avoid it.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Day 34: Enough Is Enough!
SNAKES ON A PLANE (2006)
Directed by David R. Ellis
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Rachel Blanchard, Flex Alexander, Keenan Thompson, David Koechner
After a young surfer (Phillips) witnesses a murder in Hawaii, he is placed under the protection of FBI agent Neville Flynn (Jackson) and flown to Los Angeles to testify against the mobster responsible. Of course, the mob needs to keep the kid quiet, so they decide to bring down the plane. But since bombs can be detected, they go with a more organic solution. They fill the plane with hundreds of poisonous snakes who wreak predictable (and disgusting) havoc on the unsuspecting passengers.
I’ll admit that this is an interesting twist on the disaster film, but when you get right down to it, it’s still a by-the-numbers action flick. There’s plenty of the gratuitous sex, trashy violence and foul language that you’ve come to expect over the years. But this time, there’s snakes. And…that’s about it. It sounds like more fun that it really is.
To tell the truth, I found this whole movie to be a complete waste of time. There’s really nothing to look forward to in this film. Besides, the most exciting part of the premise is already given to you in the title! You know what you’re going to get before you even go in, so there’s really nothing scary or exciting. The filmmakers have already shot themselves in the foot. But they can still get something good out of it if they special effects knock everyone out. But, unfortunately, they don’t. Because of the violence, they used very few real snakes and opted for some of the cheesiest CGI effects I’ve ever seen. And the way the snakes go about killing people – biting their nether-regions, strangling and eating entire people and the like – is completely ludicrous.
The only bright spot in this whole disaster is Samuel L. Jackson, who can make even the dumbest movie at least somewhat entertaining. And he accomplishes that here. Julianna Margulies as a flight attendant on her last mission (of course) is pretty good as well. Among the others on the doomed flight are a dog loving fashionista (Blanchard), a germophobic rapper (Alexander) and his video game loving bodyguard (Thompson). All are very stereotypical one-dimensional characters who really add nothing to the story. But then again, the story isn’t the important thing here, is it?
Part of creating suspense and terror is having characters we care about. And I didn’t care about any of these guys. I was just waiting to see what kind of sick fate would befall them, which I would say was the whole point this movie was made. Oh, and to have Samuel L. Jackson state, in no uncertain terms, his attitudes towards those snakes that happen to be on that plane. But do yourself a favor; find that clip on YouTube and save yourself from having to sit through the other 106 minutes. Besides, that joke’s not even funny anymore.
Day 33: Fetch Me My Diet Pills, Would You?
HAIRSPRAY (1988)
Directed by John Waters
Starring (in alphabetical order): Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Debbie Harry, Ricki Lake, Jerry Stiller
I’ve always wanted to see a John Waters movie. I’ve heard whispers of his 70’s exercises in extremely bad taste Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, but my local library doesn’t carry them. So until I get my Netflix account back up and running (and actually work up the nerve to sit through one or both of them), I’ll have to start with something else.
And I’ve started with his tamest film, Hairspray. A nostalgic romp through the early 60’s, it’s the story of Tracy Turnblad (Lake) a local teen who lives out her dream of dancing on the Corny Collins Show, where all the latest and greatest R&B records are played. Despite the fact that she’s a bit on the chunky side, she still wows the crowd by her energetic dancing and winning personality. Even her parents (Divine and Jerry Stiller), though reluctant at first, embrace Tracy’s newfound fame. But she dethrones the current dancing beauty, who along with her parents (Bono and Harry) vows revenge. They get their chance when Tracy urges the local TV station owner (also Divine, in a hilarious duel role) to let her black friends dance on the show. But the station’s idea of forward thinking is to have “Negro Day” on the last Thursday of each month, hosted by Motormouth Maybelle (Brown), and featuring all black dancers. Tracy and her friends become champions of integration, while her white-bread enemies plot their revenge.
This is an interesting film for a lot of reasons. First of all, it’s the infamous John Waters in “PG” mode. He said once of Hairspray that he “accidentally made a family film.” Well, it may not be for all families, as there are a few gross out gags, twisted jokes and an especially demented psychiatrist (Waters himself) and bit of naughty language. But there’s also plenty of great early rock and R&B and a good amount of heart along with it. Ricki Lake is wonderful as Tracy. She’s got just the right amount of effervescence to keep her hefty character light. And she’s not a bad dancer, either. Divine is a typically off-center choice as Edna Turnblad (and as the Station Manager), and steals every scene s/he’s in.* Also of note are Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasek as a couple of far-out beatniks
However, there is such an emphasis on the music that, if you look a bit closer, this is actually a pretty sloppily made film. It’s not really told from any one character’s point of view and has a bit of a “fly on the wall” feel to it. Also, the dance sequences are directed without much flair or style. The whole film is made in a very straightforward way, which seems out of place for such a bubbly musical. But you may be so busy dancing to the amazing repertoire of R&B standards and long-buried treasures that you won’t really care about the film’s flaws. And for that, I can’t really blame anyone.
*Choose whichever pronoun you feel is appropriate.
Day 32: Klaatu Barada Nikto
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Billy Gray, Sam Jaffe
The world waits with baited breath as a flying saucer lands in Washington D.C. As its inhabitants emerge, we greet the space man in the traditional American fashion – we shoot him. But don’t freak out, we just winged him! He’ll be okay. Remember, gun control is hitting what you aim at.
This svelte young space cadet is named Klaatu (Rennie), and he comes to earth to bring a message to all of earth’s nations. However, he picked a bad time – the height of the Cold War. He is kept under strict guard at a local hospital, but manages to escape and live among the ignorant earth slobs at a boarding house (under the name Mr. Carpenter), where he meets a young single mother named Helen (Neal) and her son Bobby (Gray). While there, he sees the paranoia of the public in full swing, even though he develops a bond with Helen and Bobby. But Helen’s jealous boyfriend (Marlowe) thinks there’s more to Mr. Carpenter than meets the eye.
I had a really hard time sitting through this thoroughly boring and preachy film. While many of you will take that to mean that I disagree with the film’s message – i.e., nuclear war is a bad thing – I actually don’t. It’s a pretty screwed up world we live in, even today, and the fewer nutjobs with nuclear bombs we have traipsing around the world, the better. But the film is used as a pulpit and the script as a sermon, which makes for a pretty bland movie. Why not show us the effects of nuclear war? Or have the aliens target our own nuclear enrichment facilities? Or do something other than stand there and gloat about how superior your society is compared to ours?
Also, the whole morality of the film is a bit flawed. Klaatu’s ultimatum is this: live at peace with us, or we’ll wipe out your entire planet. It’s not “We will defend ourselves,” or “We have the right to exist the same as you.” No, it’s, “set one foot in our atmosphere and we’ll burn your planet to a crisp.” Isn’t the same kind of thinking the film accuses us of having? Thus, the moral of the film is, when confronted with violence, answer in kind. Oh, and by the way, war is bad, m’kay?
There are a few fun and rather impressive (for the time) special effects at the beginning and end of the film, but we have to sit through an awfully boring second act. About the only thing about the film I found to be interesting or entertaining was Bernard Hermann’s musical score. Outside of that, the acting is flat (especially from Patricia Neal), the story is boring and the message is confusing. And yet this is considered one of the classics science fiction cinema. Maybe that’s because it’s the product of a different time. And though it would be fair to argue that our current geopolitical situation isn’t all that different, there have been many better, more interesting and scarier movies that depict our fallen world. Look those up instead.
Day 31: That's The Way It Crumbles, Cookie-Wise
THE APARTMENT (1960)
Directed by Billy Wilder
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurry, Ray Walston
C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) is doing alright for himself. He’s got a good job at a New York insurance company. He’s got a bit of an undeserved reputation as a playboy. And his superiors at the company do nothing but sing his praises. It could be because of all his hard work and dedication. Or it could be because they pay him money on the side to use his apartment for their extramarital activities. But because of this bit of friendly give-and-take, the higher-ups are grooming Baxter for a promotion, which he’s only too happy to accept. Soon though, he becomes enamored with an elevator girl named Fran (MacLaine). When he finally works up the nerve to ask her out, it comes to light that she’s the main extramarital squeeze of the company’s big boss, Mr. Sheldrake (MacMurry).
All the trappings for your typical romantic comedy are set up in the first act, but The Apartment takes a much more dramatic turn than you might expect. Fran is unhappy being the latest of Mr. Sheldrake’s romantic conquests and, while in Baxter’s apartment, tries to kill herself with sleeping pills. Baxter returns to find her and calls for his neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss (Walston). As it turns out, what with all the carryings-on at all hours of the night, everyone in the building thinks Baxter is a hard-living, hard-loving cad. But as with most things, Baxter is too timid to tell anyone the truth about this, even if it means his neighbors think rather poorly of him.
This was a pretty daring film for its time, which is what I’ve come to expect from Billy Wilder. He was always trying to push people’s buttons. He’s tackled such taboo subjects as alcoholism (The Lost Weekend), Hollywood’s shoddy treatment of its former stars (Sunset Boulevard) and even featured Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as cross dressers (Some Like It Hot) long before most Hollywood directors dared. And here, he deals with philandering corporate hot-shots and suicide. Of course, the film is about much more than that, but to even mention such things (let alone, show them) in a film in the late 50’s/early 60’s must have made it hard for a studio to green-light the film, let alone get it released. This film, like Wilder himself, has guts.
As for the performances, Lemmon is spectacular. It’s especially funny to see him as his usual nebbish-y self when all his neighbors think he’s Don Juan reborn. But he’s also quite touching in the more serious scenes, and it’s great to see him eventually grow a backbone. MacLaine is good as well as the naïve small-town girl in the big city, but she underplays her part in a cast full of actors who are usually playing for laughs. She does okay, but she seems out of place, which depending on your point of view, is a good thing. MacMurry is wonderfully hateable as Sheldrake, who doesn’t give a damn whose toes he steps on to get what he wants. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play the villain before, which he does rather well. And if he has, maybe I need to check out more of his movies.
This is yet another Oscar Winner for Best Picture, and it seems an odd choice. But Oscar has been known to favor films that buck the system from time to time. And in an odd turn of events, it just so happens that the movie Baxter watches when he gets home from work is Grand Hotel, which I just watched myself a few days ago. CO-INCIDENCE!? Yeah, probably.
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